A Few of My Favorite Things

Now that I have a camera at my disposal, I've taken some photos of some of my favorites.

My lovely Zojirushi bread machine, a really handy "beaker" measuring cup, and a "French bread" cutting board, perfect for taking a strudel to a party. The dough knife is another extremely useful tool, and I don't care that my dad laughs to think I bought a rectangle of metal with one edge curled over. We use it for all sorts of things.

Dough/bench knife, Bread machine (Zo), and Beaker on a narrow cutting board 

Removed from the list: "Six Thousand Years of Bread", the book I tried reading; it turns out to be oddly religious, more historical than culinary, and honestly not as captivating as I had hoped. I did not finish reading it.  My little shelves hold two pan scales, measuring cups, flax seed, sesame seed, amaranth seed, powdered milk, vanilla in a dropper bottle, a jar of acetic acid, a salt cellar like Alton Brown's, and some Fiesta pieces.

Two-pan scales and other frequently used items.

Kitchenaid mixer with grain mill attachment

A great cutting board and bread knife, with the remains of my latest loaf of bread (they even ate the crusts)

Prelude to Pretzel Class: The Grain Flaker/Crusher

I'm doing my pretzel class once again next week for my youngest daughter's preschool class.

The teachers asked me to send the grain crusher (Marcato Marga Flaker) this week, so all the kids can have a go at it. We put it through its paces at home first. Here's my daughter showing how it's done.

One setting makes flakes out of oats, another setting crushes it into flour. Some grains will flake, others just crack. I have found that wheat cracks, and that spelt and oats will flake.
Kids find it fun to turn the crank, then feel the flakes or flour that falls into the tray. She wanted to try crushing all thirteen varieties of grain that I had.

To make it look more like the flour that most kids are accustomed to, use a fine mesh sifter. This will separate the bran from the flour. Doesn't she look serious?

I dumped the bran onto the paper towel next to the flour that we sifted out. The flaker makes a more coarse flour than you get at the grocery, but it is definitely flour. Feeling it is a must. The next thing I did was add some water to the flour and show her how it turns into a dough. That was good for giggles and playing with. She said it smelled good, and ate some of it.