Yup! I did it!

I finally purchased SBI!! Instead of greek pastries I decided to write a website on flatbread. You can check it out at www.flatbreadbaking.com

I so excited to start my new website!!!!

I've Gone M.I.A.!

So yeah... I haven't been updating! I've kind of gotten lazy, so I haven't been baking or blogging -well that was at least until today. Yesterday morning -ahem... 9 o'clock!- I got all four of my wisdom teeth extracted, so no eating solid food for a while (a long while)! By solid food, I mean simple pastries or even a crispy loaf of bread. Because of that I've given up cooking and, even worse, baking for a while. Oh how am I going to survive? Other than that, I have some great news!

I've been working on awakinging a frozen sourdough starter, but I haven't had good luck. There are some reasons why but after the weekend, I'm going to work on another one. By the time I can eat solid food, my sourdough will be up and awake. I plan to do a couple posts on my method to sourdough!

I am also working on two other websites. One will be about Greek Pastries and another will be a new website for this blog. Awesome huh? I've became infatuated with Greek cuisine so I'm darn excited to share my knowledge with others! I think I will use a nice wordpress site for this blog. So anyway, I'm super excited and a little drugged as of now!!!

Keep checking back for more info! ...Oh and pray for a speedy recovery as I can't go this long with out BREAD! AHHH!!!

France + Butter = One Delicious Cookie (French Butter Cookie)

Butter and France go together like a cuppa hot masala chai on a white winter night. Ahh, butter! What's better than butter? Butter, flour, sugar, and eggs mixed together into a fattening and buttery treat!

What is the treat that I'm talking about? Well, they're called punitions. They are basically a French butter or sugar cookie that Lionel Poilâne is so famous for. (You can read my old post about Lionel) Going into his old Parisian shop you'll see a basket full of them for customers and window-shoppers alike.

The story behind punitions is so fun. Lionel's grandmother would hide a stash of punitions in her hands and would call Lionel as if he was in trouble. She would smile and give him a cookie. Punition in French means punishment. Lionel also once said that it is a punishment in itself to wait for them to cool. I just cheat and eat one hot. ;o)

Become One with the Dough

The one thing that separates a newbie baker and a master baker is their ability to sense the dough. What I mean is knowing the proper balance of liquid to flour. Oddly as it might seem... If you learn to become one with the dough then you can throw away your measuring cups and scales (to a point) and use your hands.

Many many many beginning bakers become too stressed over perfection. Perfection on measurements, time, and temperature, but the funny fact is that if you learn basic techniques then you've mastered the recipe. Now I will admit when you bake things like cakes or sweet pastries, you might want to be a bit more of a stickler on perfection.

"Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again" -Julia Child

Lionel Poilâne

It's strange that I haven't talked about Poilâne (Poi-lahn) at all! Along side Peter Reinhart, Lionel Poilâne is my other baking role model. 

Lionel Poilâne, if you don't already know, was one of the most famous bakers. He inherited a small Parisian bakery in the Latin Quarter and changed it into a baking empire that centered around simplicity. Lionel actually didn't want to bake. He just wanted to live a normal life, but his father forced him to bake bread at his shop.