jennifer bakes – Sometimes I bake. Sometimes it goes well.

See those bakes down there? All those sourdoughs and breads and desserts and random foods I woke up craving one morning and then just HAD to figure out how to make?

They are ALL getting their own meticulously detailed recipes littered with photos and videos and all the methods and tips I’ve learned through multitudes of marathon weekend baking failures that eventually turned into successes (I mean…for the most part).

So follow me on Instagram for updates on this site, and message me any requests you may have for recipes I should get to sooner than later.

I did it! I made the @beesham_the_baker couronne b

I did it! I made the @beesham_the_baker couronne bordelaise from his online class.

Kind of…I didn’t prep enough starter cause who ACTUALLY goes into anything fully prepared, not this girl! But it still came out pretty great with the reduced levain. Snowflake bread was my second attempt after I spaced the first one too far. I’m 100% making this again. It’s beautiful and the design potential is very exciting.

Stencils always from @stencil1

So for my (our) wedding gift my brother made me a

So for my (our) wedding gift my brother made me a freaking amazing bread knife. A hand forged folded metal offset handled gigantic SERRATED bread knife. With a green wood handle. Dude. And I finally got to try it out after weeks of a lethargic starter. I love it. It’s amazing. Its the best prototype knife gift yet 🖤🔪🖤
Thank you Brother and Jenny!

I’m gonna have a big loaf to try it out on soon and then I’ll give it a proper photoshoot 😂🤞🏻

Trying my best @yeastbased impression over here wi

Trying my best @yeastbased impression over here with my pain d’epi crown (wreath) charcuterie.
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#charcuterieboard #paindepi #baguettesallday #christmasbaking

Per usual, I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’m doing it anyway.

💀🎃🖤 First Halloween in our new town. The

💀🎃🖤

First Halloween in our new town. They take it SERIOUS here. Apparently kids come from all over to our specific street. Our neighbors house looks AMAZINGLY creepy and haunted. We have 600 pieces of candy and I’m nervous it’s not enough. I’m excited…and scared.

Bread is chock full of good things. We got sunflower seeds, white sesame, black sesame, flax, oats, lots of wheat. I added it all during a lamination. It makes amazing grilled cheese. I’m happy.
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#instabaker #bakersofinstagram #instabread #foodphotography #buzzfeedfood #realbread #nytcooking #sourdough #sourdoughbread #artisanbread #wildyeast #naturallyleavened #breadbosses #breadporn #bbga #sourdoughclub #breadstagram #breadhead #breadgardiumlevainosa #breadart #sometimesibake #bakefeed #levain #sourdoughbaking #crumbshot #halloweenbaking #seededbread

It’s the eve of Halloween. 🦇 💀 🎃 Go ca

It’s the eve of Halloween.
🦇 💀 🎃
Go cause some mischief.
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@stencil1
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#instabaker #bakersofinstagram #homebaker #instabread #foodphotography #buzzfeedfood #realbread #nytcooking #sourdough #sourdoughbread #artisanbread #wildyeast #naturallyleavened #breadbosses #breadporn #bbga #sourdoughclub #breadstagram #breadhead #breadgardiumlevainosa #breadart #sometimesibake #bakefeed #levain #sourdoughbaking #halloweenbread #breadstencil #hallowbaking #paintmelikeoneofyourfrenchgirls #lifeuhfindsaway

I haven’t baked anything interesting lately. But

I haven’t baked anything interesting lately. But here’s a pretty flower ✨

I’ve got my mind set on doing a super seeded and oat-y bread this weekend since we’ll be home the whole time. I should probably get pumpkin seeds for it, right? And some buckwheat maybe? Ohhhhh maybe I’ll even laminate it. There’s just so many possibilities!

So like, home baking in Jersey is now…legal? Thi

So like, home baking in Jersey is now…legal? This fights been going on for a long time, but it just came to my attention three or four years ago, and it was shocking to learn. We were the last state to not have any cottage food laws in place. The ONLY state in this country where selling things you baked in your own home was literally ILLEGAL. Which is just insane and ridiculous and a long drawn out story of how broken our system is that a single representative can stop an entire industry for over a decade. But voices matter, and we won. It’s been frustrating watching others publicly advertise and sell their home baked goods over the past few years. And I get it, who’s gonna know? Who’s gonna stop you? But people do get caught, and there are consequences, and I wasn’t about risking a potential legitimate future business, and that frustration was a drive to lots of people. And everyone else waiting and working for this change is why it’s happened. And the majority of them are bad ass women getting shit done. Who know their worth and settled for nothing less. There’s still a ton of reading I have to do, classes to take, applications to fill out (which should be available soon). But…I’m excited. This is exciting.

Thank you to all my friends and family who continue to sign petitions and write letters so that your jennifer can start making some money from what makes her happy. And thanks to everyone who continues to send me and tag me in stuff cause it feels good that you’re celebrating too 🖤

Pumpkin crumb muffins 🎃 (with discard!) Big t

Pumpkin crumb muffins 🎃
(with discard!)

Big thanks to @elizabeth_jessup for reminding me of these guys, I can’t believe I waited till the last week of September to make them again. I’m sharing the recipe as is cause they are just ::chefs kiss:: nick has eaten two for breakfast everyday since I baked them. I am going to try adding more discard in the future and try to maximize that usage, but I’m really happy with them in their current form. Full batch is below and makes 20 very filled cupcake sized muffins, but I usually half it cause it’s just us two.

Whisk:
15oz pumpkin (about 425g)
166g sourdough discard
200g brown sugar
50g granulated sugar
157g milk
80g veggie oil
2eggs
2tsp vanilla

Whisk dried ingredients in separate bowl:

292g ap flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin spice

Crumble:

140g ap Flour
100g brown sugar
100g gran sugar
85g melted butter
1/4tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp pumpkin spice
Mix everything gently with a fork JUST until crumbles form. Do not over mix or you’ll end up with one big dough. (I HAVE over mixed myself and have had luck sprinkling some more flour over it kind of making little crumbles, but try not to get here)
Set aside

Mix the previous wet and dry until it’s just come together. Scoop into cupcake papers (I use a big ice cream scoop and it’s perfect, it fills it to just below the top of the cup)
Sprinkle crumbs on top and gently pat them into the batter so they stick like a champ.

Start your bake at 425° for five minutes then drop to 375°
Bake at this temp 15-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. (My old utilitarian apartment oven took 25 minutes at 375° but my new convection oven took only 15, get to know your oven, check it at the shorter time and add minutes as needed)

Eat them all over the course of two days.

If you need a good pumpkin spice recipe, here’s mine, scale up to whatever amount satisfies your PS love:

25g cinnamon
5g nutmeg
7.5g ginger
2.5g all spice
2.5g cloves

🍂🍁🍂🎃🍂🍁🍂

What up? It’s been awhile since I’ve had good

What up? It’s been awhile since I’ve had good bread. Super happy with the crumb. I think I can thank the extra 36 hours of unplanned fridge rest for its flavor. Outside was kind of ugly, but who cares when this is what’s inside?
#uglybreadisstilldelicious

I’m trying to bake more but life has been making it hard. I have a goal of pulling out a pumpkin discard muffin recipe I played with last year HOPEFULLY tonight. Hold me to it guys.

This guy though:
85% bf
15% we
81% h20
17% levain
1.9% salt

Started on Thursday 1:40
Baked Sunday at about 4pm

🎃🥯🎃 I’m going to try to make these agai

🎃🥯🎃
I’m going to try to make these again this week and work out the issues I’ve had:
1. Stiff dough makes for better bagels, but kneading is a bitch. By hand is crazy and my mixer just can’t handle or effectively knead it (if you have a recommendation for a good stiff dough mixer I’ve love to hear it!)
2. I need to figure out how to get a good sugar/spice swirl. This one worked FINE. But I didn’t get as much of the mix in the bagel as I hoped and it made for really difficult and sloppy shaping. My intent was to add it to the mixer towards the end of kneading but that didn’t work cause see point 1 ^

Some things I think DID work well:
1. I threw the hydration down to a crazy low number and upped the pumpkin to compensate, and I gotta say, I’m a fan
2. Vital wheat gluten. Also a fan. I’ll eventually try my bagels without it, but I think it really really helps to get that Jersey bagel texture that im looking for. I bought a bunch of it for another project and didn’t end up using it but now I’m putting it to better use.

I have a lot of family eager to taste test them so hopefully I can get it right soon.

I added my notes at the end. (Look @bookish_baker_ ! I did it! So many notes!)
Decipher if you so choose.

🎃 🥯 Party in the front. Train wreck in the

🎃 🥯
Party in the front.
Train wreck in the back.

Swipe all the way to see all gorgeous little bubbles in the crust 🥲

We’ve been so occupied with painting and maintai

We’ve been so occupied with painting and maintaining this damn house that I let us run out of bread. This guy is from like…two weeks ago? Maybe three? I need to restock my freezer bread this week. I also think it’s absolutely necessary to give bagels another go. They should be pumpkin bagels…right?

Chocolate babka funfetti bun…things? I made my

Chocolate babka funfetti bun…things?

I made my normal sandwich loaf with grandpa Kucharski’s babka recipe. It makes two and we don’t have room in our freezer for the second so I used half the dough to try something new (for me). I think they’re good! The filling was a very random mix of butter, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and dark chocolate chunks. The glaze is water, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a bit of butter (we ran out of milk otherwise I’d have used that). I think it’s too sweet, but nick is like “things can’t be too sweet, if anything it’s too much chocolate” and ended up eating pretty much just straight glaze. We are very different people. It’s definitely got potential, I’m gonna use a different sort of glaze/frosting next time. Maybe more of a butter glaze? If that’s a thing? Research needs to be done. We’ll see, we’ll see.
🎉 🌈 🍫🍩

I was struggling to find the right outdoor lightin

I was struggling to find the right outdoor lighting for my bread (the apartment had one single, albeit perfect, natural lighting window. And nick was like all like “why aren’t you using all of our glorious flowers as backdrops?” And I was all like “because I can’t hold it and photograph it at the same time, my wingspan is limited” and he was all like, “a hand model, I shall be, for you”, and like, yea, this backdrop is pretty cool 🌺

80% bf
20% ww
80% h2o
1.9% salt
17% levain
About a 40 hour cold proof

My oven is awesome. My macarons came out awesome.

My oven is awesome. My macarons came out awesome. Not having any hot spots is awesome. Having convection is awesome. I’m sure once I try out the bread proofing mode I’ll also say that’s awesome.

Gifted these to our neighbors who are insanely friendly and welcoming to us. Also gave a loaf of bread. These will be my new go to baked good for gluten free friends since I can’t show my love through bread. The blue is chocolate buttercream filled and the yellow was a new experiment: Rosemary buttercream and lemon curd center. I’m now gonna sit here nervously all night hoping they like them 😬

Over the past week we finally got our apartment cl

Over the past week we finally got our apartment cleared and cleaned and we said our goodbyes.
We assembled and mailed our wedding invitations.
We dragged a treadmill up our windy stairs (with help from my parents and a neighbor).
We assembled the treadmill with only moderate cursing.
We celebrated birthdays and rediscovered the pure joy of old school gaming.
We found that old houses are homes to terrifying large insects.
I have yet to convince myself that our house is haunted.
We mowed lawns and trimmed hedges and got to eat outside.
We discovered how slow unpacking a whole house is.
We baked bread.

Life’s pretty alright.

First new house bread! Pretty basic 20% whole whe

First new house bread!

Pretty basic 20% whole wheat 79% hydration loaf. Old reliable. I usually like using rye but it can make the dough a bit of a pain to work with sometimes so I’m trying going back to regular old King Arthur whole wheat. The dough just like…feels so nice. And now that we have more space I’m gonna start experimenting with fresh ground again.

(If these go well I may try gifting a couple to some neighbors who gave us nice welcomes)

Slowwwwwly settling into our new house. The fancy

Slowwwwwly settling into our new house.

The fancy fridge our house came with apparently holds a lot less food than our old apartment fridge so im working through my freezer foods to create some space. We’ve eaten all freezer bread and have started on some old puff pastry. This is why freezer baking stuff is essential. You get to make fun delicious experimental food with minimal effort. (This is puff with an egg, some questionable provolone, and Taylor ham, and it’s amazing)

Started feeding little dude and will bake my first house bread soon so the food posts/some new recipe attempts will resume soon.

P.s. blinds are the mostly surprising/unexpected expense of our home so far. That is all.

We spent the long weekend at the house and managed

We spent the long weekend at the house and managed to paint two out of the five rooms in queue to be painted! (with my parents help).
We used the @artisanbryan ciabatta recipe because our town was having a free concert in the park Saturday and we were gonna fancy sandwich and thermos beer it, but it got rained out. Which was better cause we got to porch hang a bit with some new neighbors who gave us some local beer to sample (@highrailbrewingco ), then we went home and ate fancy sandwiches on camping furniture while watching Independence Day 👽 and did some tipsy paint touch up.

I think we’re gonna like our new town.

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