I made this recently and was going to post on new recipes for April but never got around to it. It's very good...perfect for afternoon tea or for bridge club. Slices beautifully and can slice thin and cut in half for those that want a tiny portion: Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze 2 sticks of unsalted butter, plus 1 T. for pan 1 1/2 C. cake flour, plus 1T for pan (room temp.) 2 T. lemon zest 1 1/4 C. sugar 4 large eggs 2 T. fresh lemon juice 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 C sour cream Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 9" x 5" loaf pan with 1 T. butter and dust with 1 T. cake flour tapping out excess. Place the 2 sticks of butter and lemon zest in small saucepan set over low heat. Gently melt butter whisking constantly. Remove from heat and set aside. Combine sugar, eggs and lemon juice in bowl of standing mixer. Using whisk attachment, beat sugar, eggs, and lemon juice on medium speed about 30 seconds. Reduce speed to low and in slow steady stream pour in the melted butter and lemon zest. Sift the 1 1/2 C cake flour into medium bowl along with baking powder and salt. Add sifted flour mixture in three stages to the wet ingredients in mixer. Be sure to scrape down sides of bowl to ensure and evenly blended batter. Mix batter just until blended...add 1/2 C sour cream and mix to blend. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 15 min. Reduce oven temp to 325 and bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. About 40 - 45 min. Be sure to rotate pan once after 20 min of baking. When done, remove cake from oven and cool in pan on wire rack for 10 min. Remove from pan and continue to cool on rack until just warm. Pour glaze over cake while warm. Lemon Glaze 2 C. confectioners sugar 1/4 C fresh lemon juice 1 T. lemon zest Sift confectioners sugar into medium bowl. Stir in lemon juice and lemon zest. Pour over warm cake.

Here you go. Haven't met anyone that didn't like these. Decadent Caramel Rice Krispies Squares Regular Rice Krispie Squares (thicker version) 1/2 cup butter 400 g Marshmallows Pinch of salt (optional) 1 tablespoon vanilla extra 9 to 10 cups Rice Krispies Melt butter and stir in marshmallows and pinch of salt. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and rice krispies. stir until well coated. Pour into buttered 9 X 13 inch . (I use a pyrex glass) cake pan. The idea for these squares comes from another blog - Pots and Pins. Nan, makes the rice krispies squares the normal thickness and pours her caramel over the top. Because her squares are not as thick, some of the caramel sits on top of the square forming a separate caramel layer. In my version, I used my caramel sauce which does not contain corn syrup and because my squares are thicker, the caramel funnels it way through the whole square. Caramel Rice Krispie Squares Prepare rice krispies squares. Set aside. Caramel Sauce 1 cup butter 1 cup heavy cream 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup white sugar pinch of salt vanilla Coarse Sea Salt ( I use Maldon Salt Flakes) Place butter, cream, sugars and pinch of salt in a heavy sauce pan. Simmer until caramel reaches the soft ball stage. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour caramel over rice krispies squares. Caramel sauce will slowly seep down through squares. Sprinkle with sea salt and refrigerate until cold.

ann_t, you saw the shine! As my bread mentor, I sure wanted you do see my progress and am thrilled you popped in! I had a better photo showing the shine but didn’t upload it. I let this bread rise the same time, but the difference was the pizza stone and the grill – sure hope I can replicate it as we enjoyed in so much this weekend! I think you’ve done an amazing job at describing the uses of the pockets/holes, the flavor difference, texture difference. dcarch, as always, your words are so kind – thank you. I agree, a bread with only massive holes would be useless. It needs ‘pockets’! I admit, I am proud of this loaf. Ricky (fawnbridge), I’d never heard of ‘voonge’ but clearly I do it, a lot! We used this loaf to voonge gravy and bits from beef tips : ) Thank you for the kudos! mamapinky0 – wonderful descriptions of ciabatta and artisan breads – makes me hungry for it right now – and how blessed you are to have a bakery to make it for you! I like all breads – white and whole wheat sandwich for our lunches, and eggs on toast, savory for cheese and herb breads, uber-soft Hokkaido for melt-in-the-mouth dinner rolls and decadent French toast – and yes, even bread pudding. DH and I love the crust of artisan, the pockets that hold flavor, and the ability of this bread to hold up to moisture over regular sandwich bread – but the flavor is also quite good. We all have our preferences : ) Hi chas045! Seems you’ve been following posts! The credit really goes to ann_t, who in her recipe (link above) explains the entire process and includes wonderful photos. I thought it was the grill – my first pizza on the grill had nice holes and pockets accompanied with an excellent crust, but the 2nd was like my cast iron in the oven pizza… I suspect it’s the wetter dough, among other things. As with my first attempts decades ago with white bread, there came a point when it was muscle memory while kneading – it just felt and looked right at some point. Hopefully I can attain this over the next year on a consistent basis with artisan. annie1992, thank you! I’ve seen photos of your breads – and your bread always looks better than mine (and while it’s not about looks, when bread looks right, it tastes right) – and you explained it so well also, the artisan is chewier and more substantial. Chewier does not equate to ‘tough’ in case anyone who hasn’t tried it is wondering. . I started making artisan bread a few years back, but it was rather tasteless and touch, rather than chewy. The crust was like concrete also – and my pizza could not hold up to sauces, so I just stopped all attempts. ann_t’s tutelage and recipe have improved my recent efforts to the point we prefer this over sandwich breads now. I’m hoping others who want to try artisan breads will be encouraged to! I’ve learned some wonderful lessons in bread-making, but the biggest lesson which ann_t taught me: Don’t be afraid of the dough – it can take a lot!

This is the recipe that I followed (but cut in half): 8 Cups Bread flour 1 Tablespoon Yeast 1 1/2 Tablespoons Salt about 4 cups of water 2 Tablespoons olive oil. (optional) . Mix flour yeast water and oil( Optional) (not salt) together for a minute and leave for 20 minutes for the water to be partially absorbed. Add salt and mix for about 30 minutes until the dough comes together enough to be worked by hand. Continue kneading until smooth. Place in an large oiled bowl and rub olive oil on top, cover and let rise until more than doubled. Pour out on to surface and divide into the number of loafs you require. Do not punch out the air. Shape into loafs, sprinkle tops with flour and leave to rise on a flour/cornmeal dusted surface. Heat tile/stones in oven to 500 degrees while bread is rising. Slide loafs on to hot stone and spray with cold water, three times, three minutes apart. Lower heat to 450° and bake for about 30 minutes. (I can do two loafs at a time in the oven on a large stone). I always use a scale to measure the flour, but I didn't use a scale to weigh the water at 70% so my hydration was off by quite a bit. In spite of being totally unmanageable dough - I couldn't knead it even if I wanted to - it really didn't matter. How interesting is that since the pizza came out great! Thanks everyone, and Ann T, for helping me out1