Forever themes of my baking- artisan bread &sourdough

I do bake a lot of cookies, cakes and pastries; I found them extremely useful when I go to parties or simply want to please my foodie friends.

Indeed, I can always find myself a justified excuse to bake. (Once I started to make the first birthday cake for my friend in lab, I unconsciously have set myself into this situation. So, I felt really relieved that I don't need to bake for the next coming birthday- that is my own lol.) But I don't 'consume' many of the sweet stuffs I bake; baking makes me more aware of how good 'calories' taste, so I actually lost some pounds since I started baking XP.

What I do bake for myself all the time are sourdough artisan breads! They have even replaced rice totally to become my staple now. I just enjoy the aroma of grains so much and cannot have enough of those bread! I like to try different recipes of artisan bread, mostly changing the grains and nuts I put into the dough. It's amazing that combination of different grains gives you totally different flavors!

This recipe has some Chinese elements- pine seeds and wolfberries. Wolfberries are those small red fruits on trees and look a little bit like grapes. They're often seen in Chinese herbal medicine recipes and are supposed to nurture your body. I do believe Chinese medicine a lot, but most importantly, wolfberries taste good! And it condenses all the flavors and gives a surprisingly wonderful caramel after baking(￣▽￣). With the pine seeds, as well as the aromas of rye flour- OK, enough self-advertising, let me grab another piece first!

Last but not least, linkage of the recipe (in Chinese) http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5e15a7120102dqu7.html

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A touch of Claire- baking, cooking& life

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