Making multigrain bread

Posted on by Ian C.

Another trip to Le Petit Paris today, to learn about multigrain bread; I’ve wondered whether the difference in multigrain is just the addition of “grains” and it turns out yes that is basically it – the dough is pretty similar to the sourdough we made last year, except that Stefan added toasted sunflower and flax seeds:

We then were given three separate pieces of dough which we flattened to get out the air then folded into a basic bread shape, with one going in a tin to bake and a second just on a tray. For the third dough I wanted to make small multigrain rolls so Stefan demonstrated cutting the dough into three and hand rolling each to a round shape. All three shaped doughs were rolled in a mixture of oats and seeds, before baking …

This dough takes a long time to work with – it needs resting time after mixing, a lot of proving time, and a 40 minute bake – and for the tin we ran short of time so I suggested that we take the tin and bake at home; the tray bread and my bread rolls needed a bit less proving time so we baked them, and they all came out really well! And when I got home I baked the tin (which had risen really well by now) and it also was delicious:

Another fun morning at the bakery, with lots of flavor to enjoy at home.

Cirque Du Soleil Drawn

Posted on by Ian C.

For many years there was a Cirque Du Soleil show in Disney Springs called La Nouba, which we saw many times (11, I think) but before Covid it was to be replaced – and Covid canceled the first showing of the replacement before it happened (we had it booked for April 2020, never went of course).

However the new show Drawn To Life did eventually open and of course we’ve seen it (5 times so far); it’s an interesting performance mixing Disney theming with Cirque acrobatics with a story that isn’t hard to follow (unlike some Cirque shows!)

Photography isn’t allowed during the performance, but there’s a pre-show that gives opportunities, as well as all the performers coming on stage at the end – so here’s some views to give a flavor of the costumes and colors, at least! The photos are from multiple visits, multiple locations – and interestingly hint at changes to the show (for example in last night’s show we did not see the stilt walkers!) … there’s also a couple of “accidental” photos of my favorite part of the show the “wheel of death” …

Le Petit Paris Petit Fours

Posted on by Ian C.

Another entertaining morning at Le Petit Paris yesterday, this time a workshop creating savory petit fours (which are small “bite size” foods); this workshop focused on using a single dough mix (with added tomato powder for color and subtle flavor) in different shapes with different fillings – we used brats (fancy hot dogs), salmon, ham, cream cheese, and more! This time I found the dough to be easy to work with, and it seems that my piping skills have improved a little since the macarons last month!

Even trying not to bring home too much (because Margaret isn’t keen on pastry) we had a lot (see last photo above), so we invited friends Linda & Berch to share with us …