Chocolat in my bread- meet my cocoa&chestnut sourdough light rye bread XD

As a phD student who is "with all her heart" devoted to science and conquering cancer- lol just kidding... by which I mean life is kinda boring and simplified- I figure that I really need to have some serious hobbies! Baking of course pops up first and it has been more or less my weekly routine. But recently I got to think that I should more or less expand a little bit. Let's say, after I baked this bread (baking), I spent time taking pictures of it (photography), I posted it on my blog (blogging), and I need to work out to burn out the calories the bread brought me (jogging and rock climbing). See, now I have quite a few hobbies lol.

Part of the above is joking, but I've never really doing something consistently for long, so I really hope I'm going to putting new stuffs in my blog. And I met so many cool friends while climbing, and I never expected I would be enjoying it so much!

As I've been baking artisan bread for a while, I'm consistently changing the recipes. This particularly caught my eyes- it's such an interesting idea to add cocoa in savory artisan bread! The aromas of wheat and cocoa are surprisingly balanced in the bread, plus the combination of subtle bitterness of cocoa and sweetness of chestnuts. I just LOVED it!

The bread is the staple of my breakfast for the week. Stomach satisfied; now it's time to think about some dessert ideas~~~~~~

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How to feed A BOYFRIEND when you have no intention to cook

I had almost given up cooking before my boyfriend! I've always been enjoying spending time in the kitchen, but, often time, I just gave in to my laziness. Plus, I had my perfect excuses: 1. I'm a busy phD student; 2. I'm spending most of my "kitchen time" baking. So I'm really used to a rather simple meal plan myself: homemade bread for breakfast, salad for lunch and yogurt for dinner. (I try to balance the protein and starch in it, so, don't worry, I can totally be filled up.) With all my passion (and time), I made bread for myself and cakes for friends. However, all these routine somehow changed when I started to take on the responsibility to feed someone- someone who is an ultimate meat lover, who hates salad (I mean, all the green leaves), who would never join my meal plan. Alas, the game completely changed- only I'm still the lazy girl as I've always been. So I came up with a couple of tricks for the "game": 1. Make it simple...

First bread in my new kitchen: Thomas Keller's multigrain batard

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Isn't spring the moving season? Yes, to me I guess as I've been moving for two years in a row at this time of year. Sadly I finally moved out from the glorious upper east side of New York after being there for 4 years (can't believe! is it that long already??), to the "humble" Queens.. However, after I moved in, I'm starting to love my neighborhood. There is actually quite a few to explore and to discover (I mean, hmm, restaurant) in Queens. Indeed, I can't just improvise to make a call to order some Chinese food delivered to my door, or walk to the French bakery a few blocks away whenever I want. Luckily I can opt to make my own. With a good multigrain bread, some jam/spread, slices of good cheese, I am considering myself having a perfect breakfast/brunch. Of course, the world is even better if there is a cup of tea :) Multigrain batards are the most frequently-ordered bread I do in store- they're crust...

I hope it is a good start- devil's food cake&red bean cream&chocolate glazing

I could have one thousand reasons to open a blog- just about some random pieces of life, my crazy ideas, people I hate and love, and most importantly, my love about baking!!! But I was so hesitant to actually do so (OK, I admit that lameness is one of the reasons), coz I'm not satisfied with the pictures I take! I was looking at the hundreds of pretty pictures on several popular food blog, enjoying and complaining- since when has photographing become an essential life skill besides computer and replacing the bulbs?!! (I'm good at neither btw.) After all, I do want to present my cakes in a more pleasant way. So here is the decision I just made: I'm going to work hard on photographing. Hopefully the blog can see my growing~~~~ The small cakes are adapted from Thomas Keller's devil food cake. Love the rich chocolateness 'enriched' by mayonnaise! I added red bean flavored cream (so popular in Asian sweets!) between two cake layers, and glazed the layer ca...

A touch of Claire- baking, cooking& life

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