Springday!

The first of September always tends to be a bit of an anticlimax for me; I remember when I was still at school the big hype throughout August, the planning of the outfit (we were allowed to wear casual non-school-uniform clothes), the excitement to look pretty and springy etc etc etc just to have mother nature throwing us a curve ball and send the next cold front in full vengeance on the exact day we planned to celebrate the coming of spring. Well ... 20 years later and today was no exception (at least I didn't have to plan an outfit to compete with the other prettier girls to at least feel like I could be in the running for "Miss Spring") but today the wind blew through our alleyway in a serious attempt to cleanse every corner from any morsel of dust or dry winter leaf that might be hidden in a crevasse somewhere, and deposit it right inside our little shop.


I've been away for a week on leave, I went up the West Coast on a little tour to see what that side of the country looks like and I have to say that even though there are many pretty little towns with quaint little shops, I still prefer Hermanus and Victoria Eatery.
Coming back yesterday it didn't feel like I was away at all with all the admin waiting to be done - I only left the shop last night a t 19h15 (after an 12h 30' working day). I have come back with lots of excitement about new ventures to be undertaken. We are planning to start baking all our bread ourselves and today I baked our first batch of Ciabatta to use with our salads.
I have been experimenting with a Ciabatta recipe for about 2 weeks before I left. At first I tried kneading the dough with the famous electric (hand)beater with the dough attachments, but it just didn't knead the dough properly for the gluten to develop fully and the rolls came out to have the texture of normal, soft bread rolls. I then adapted the recipe to my taste requirements and tried to knead it by hand - slamming it into the counter like when you make brioche by hand but after a while the pain in my shoulder joints from the up and down action just got too much for me and with trembling hands I formed the rolls, let it rise and baked them - this time the flavour was just right but the rolls still lacked the yeasty, oily, "though" texture that I associated with proper Ciabatta . So after nagging my boss for a proper Kenwood mixer with a dough hook in order to knead it properly, he finally bought one and delivered it to me 2 days before I left - YAY!!!!!!

So today I baked them and they came out just perfectly!

Well after bragging with my goodlookin buns ;-) I'm gonna say goodnight and goodbye!
Come over sometime and try them out.