Thursday, January 31, 2008

Bread - my task ahead

Bread seems daunting...

I don't know why but the thought of kneeding bread, letting it rise, punching it down. It just seems like there are a lot of steps I could screw up on. That being said - its not going to stop me. I think bread is my new mission in the world of baking.

I will keep you posted on how it goes...

Caramel Almond Squares

The other night I wanted to bake something. So, as usual I looked in my cuboard to scope out what ingredients I had to work with. Then I picked up four cookbooks and started scanning through.

I decided to make caramel almond squares. They seemed really simple and I had all the ingredients... of course all they needed was sliced almonds, brown sugar, butter and graham crackers.

Melted the butter in a saucepan, added the brown sugar and stirred until it was a caramel colour and even consistancy. (This recipe was from one of my favorite cookbooks "Best Summer Weekends Cookbook".) Then I added the almonds to the pan, took it off the heat and stirred it all together. This was then poured over the layer of graham crackers I had put on the bottom of my jelly roll pan. Threw it in the oven for 7 min, and took it out.

Once out of the oven I left them to cool. Things were going great - they were a beautiful golden brown colour - I was planning on bringing the bars into work the next day... That was until I went to cut the bars. I was tired and decided to rush the process a little. The bars were not cool and when I went to cut them all the caramel topping came with the knife.

Now I have a great tasting pile of topping at one end. I managed to save half the tray and keep it looking pretty - but half was ruined. Need to figure out a more efficent way to cut caramel...

Going to find a recipe to make tonight...