Wild Yeast

Once again, I am proud and excited to join the international food blogging community in Menu for Hope. Organized by Chez Pim, this fundraising event to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme is a wonderful opportunity to donate to a most worthy cause, and have a chance at scores of fantastic food-related prizes while you’re at it.

Last year’s Menu for Hope raised over $91,000 (!) and this year’s effort can surpass that extraordinary success, with your participation. Proceeds from this campaign will go to the WFP’s school lunch program in Lesotho, in southern Africa.

Each $10 you donate to Menu for Hope between now and December 24 gets you one chance on your choice of item(s) from a dazzling array of prizes offered by food bloggers around the world. The more you donate, the more virtual raffle tickets you earn and the greater your chances of winning.

You may bid on any prize(s) you like, but I hope you’ll consider mine:

Item #UW04: A $100 King Arthur Flour gift card

(calling all cooks: it’s not just for flour!)

Read more to see how you can win this and other fantastic prizes…

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: unless you are WAHiker, aka Michael of Snohomish, Washington, you didn’t win the Super Peel. Congratulations to Michael!

But I have two pieces of good news, so the good news wins.

First, it’s not too late to put that excellent Super Peel on your holiday wish list. Come on, you know you want it.

Second, there is plenty of other free and fantastic stuff being given away all over food blog land, and to make it easy for you to find it, I’ve launched a new blog, Compliments of the Kitchen. It’s a list of food blog giveaways in a straightforward, just-the-facts-ma’am format. Take a look and tell me what you think. And if you know about any current giveaways that I’ve missed, please feel free to let me know!

I dare you not to find something here that tempts you.

See this week’s yeast spottings…

I’ve been making the same Christmas cookies for more than 20 years, and I figured it was time to add a little something new.

These are a different kind of cookie, actually sort of a cross between a cookie and a cracker. I like them because:

• their only sugar is what’s sprinkled on top, adding color and shine
• they’re leavened (a little) by yeast, and wild yeast at that
• they have no butter, only olive oil

(To any members of my household who may be reading this: Don’t worry, we’ll still have Candy Cane Cookies, Peanut Butter Bonbons, and a few of the other old favorites.)
(Read more…)

Last week I mentioned the Super Peel in my Gift Ideas post, and I’d like to tell you a bit more about it, as it’s one of my favorite tools.

If you bake bread or pizza you know that a peel is used to transfer a loaf or pizza onto a hot baking stone. A traditional wood or metal peel must usually be quite heavily dusted with flour or cornmeal to allow the dough to slide off the peel and onto the stone without sticking — and sometimes it still sticks, especially if the dough is quite wet. Parchment paper can help, but it’s expensive, disposable, and burns at high oven temperatures.

The Super Peel is a clever answer to those problems. Modeled after the cloth conveyor belts that professional bakeries use to get loaves in and out of large deck ovens, the Super Peel has its own pastry-cloth belt that gently and efficiently picks up a pizza, loaf, or any other delicate or sticky item from a flat surface and deposits it, unscathed, anywhere you like.

Read more about the Super Peel and how you can win one…

As always, thanks to all, newcomers and oldcomers, for baking and submitting. I am so impressed by the diversity and creativity represented in all of these beautiful breads.

See this week’s yeast spottings…