A GOOD REASON TO SAY MACKESON

i feel somewhat blasphemous doing this, but i knew the job was difficult when i took it. it's no secret that we're guinness drinkers over here, so it might shock a few that we're actually saying the word mackeson on the blog.

well truth be told, in a realm such as this, we're equal opportunity. so when i was given the choice of stag bread or mackeson bread at maria's bakery, i opted for the only available stout option. decided to take one for the team.

turns out that things could have been much worse. it was actually a nice bun. taking one for the team wasn't bad at all. though it was a hefty bread that was very filling (it was part of a relatively big breakfast that rallied me through the entire day!!) the price tag puts this in luxury class for me. at $25, this will have to be a once in a while treat. i mean, i think two people can share it if done right, but that's still a good bit of coin to put down on a round. now the bun i got (yes, got as in got a free sample. thanks for the generosity) was from the daily display, so there is a chance that the price tag might be the loaf price. we'll double check and let you all know.

following the recommendation of the sales rep (my bad fuh not getting her name but... more times fuh dat), i wanted to try it with something cheesy, so i whipped up some cheesy scrambled eggs with a few strips of turkey bacon at the side. i also toasted the round a little for no reason other than i like a lil crisp to my bites. it did go well with the sharpness of the cheese as it had that bitter sweet stout flavor. not the alcohol flavor, but the dark, roasted aftertaste you get from stout. it worked in this situation. i think it could also be nice at the side of a spicy chili bowl topped with cheddar. or even with a flavorful stew. i would imagine the beer versions might do well with a soup.

i would have preferred the flavor of guinness bread more (which they also make) because i don't really like the sweetness of mackeson, but that is purely a preference thing. it was a good bun with the right texture and flavor for a bread of that nature. if nothing else, it got me interested in finding out how the guinness and the stag versions would do. if you happen to be interested as well, you have to place an order to have it made as it's a specialty item. i think i'll be placing one soon.

DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN?

i've said it once before and i'll say it again. if baking is water, i'm a cat. if baking was oxygen, i wouldn't know how to breath. if baking was diesel, i would be a gas engine. aight, ah think yuh get the picture. i CANNOT bake. not good with flour at all! in situations like these, you understand the true meaning of that 1982 classic "that's what friends are for". BAIDAWI CAN BAKE! daz all yuh need. a friend with a good bakin' hand. check him out in some apple muffin action.

the cookie conundrum

i CANNOT bake. i mean the thought of making a bread is enough to make me curl up in fetal and just pay kiss their money. i suck at anything that requires me to kneed flour. like dumplings. but they say practice is the key, so from time to time i try my hand at it. i remembered that i had some oatmeal packs in the cupboard, so i thought... why not try some oatmeal cookies? sounds good. one problem. i don't really like cookies. not into sweets that much. then again, i have some friends that do. so i sent a text to 6 friends from work telling them that i was making some cookies and i would like them to taste them. as in, i'm not going to taste them. they will taste them and post their comments here. talk about setting up yuhself for a publicly recognized epic fail right? excitement!

i thought a good place to start would be a bowl. yuh know... something to put the ingredients in.

flour. not something i use a lot of anymore, but something i keep around for times like these.

i used this small strainer to scoop, measure and sift the flour in one motion. cool eh? didn't want to use too much flour so i used just one scoop.

i used 4 packs of oatmeal though. one maple & brown sugar and 4 cinnamon & apple. so at this point i realized that i was making cinnamon apple oatmeal cookies. sounds cool.

dumped that in the bowl and mixed it with the sifted flour.

oh yeah... baking powder. we baking right? so i guess we need a little bit of this in the mix. inside wid dat!

i heard you have to use some butter in it as well. this is what i had in the fridge so... yeah. that.

then a little sprinkling of salt to taste.

after mashing the butter around in the dry ingredients for a while, not really sure i was making much sense, i added some water. was looking for a thick but smooth dough. really based on a mental image of cookie dough.

the mixture was looking a lil plain, so i grabbed a handful of granola. basically more oats, some raisins, a few nuts... i think i could rock with that.

as i had some apple cinnamon flavor in there, i thought some apple chunks might bring something nice to the table.

i used half of a small apple. just rough chunks. thought it would help with the sweetness as i wasn't adding any more sugar. the maple & sugar oats with the cinnamon oats would have to work with the apple to make things sweet. anyway, at this point i realized that i had to adjust my description again to say apple cinnamon cookies with granola and apple chunks. wow! somebody could actually hear that and think i knew what i was doing or that i set out to do that. HA!

oh... forgot to preheat the oven. better late than never.

then i remembered... i don't have a baking sheet. well, whatever. i lined two baking pans with foil (easy for cleaning up after the fun) and gave them a lil cooking spray.

i spooned out some cookies onto the foil and placed them in the oven. in no time flat, i could smell them. the place had the fragrance of real baking. hm... impressive.

i baked them for about 18mins at 250. the bottoms came out a lil darker than i would like, but the tops had a nice color to them. not bad looking for a first time. but the real test will be when i give them to my friends to let me know how they taste.

well... my first piece of real baking. it was fun. check the comments to see what my friends say about them.

leh we bake.

give us this day a tasty bread

i never had a sweet tooth, but once in a while something would trip the sugar rush switch to the on position. this time, miss estephanie did the trick with her wholesome version of the sweet bread we know.

i got her orange-cranberry-walnut bread, but she has a variety of options like coconut-raisin, banana-walnut, carrot-walnut and more, all made with thoughtful ingredients and 50% less sugar than regular sweet bread. check out her label above.

the bread is solid. firm but moist. it has the kind of sweetness i enjoy, which is the natural sweet from the fruits. plus the bran, wheat and oats balance the flavours off nicely. so it's just sweet enough. i'll say yuh should call the number on the label and get yuh hands on a loaf or two.

i found out about this bread via my friend nicole, who happens to be miss estephanie's daughter. it's been a topic on facebook for the week thanks to another friend, richard, who made it his business to showcase the various slices he purchased and all the things he topped them with. so i promised that when i got my loaf, i would offer a creation.

so i cut up my slice.

did that so i could manipulate it into this little glass. looked like a good way to control the portion size.

next, i put a layer of this land o' lakes light whipped cream. it's not that sweet, but made with real milk and cream so it's tasty.

then i added some chilled chunky mixed fruit for the flavour and the texture.

topped it off with another layer of the bread and that was it. a nice sensible dessert. thanks for the link up nicole. thanks for the inspiration richard. thanks for the bread miss estephanie...

leh we bubble