Santa Cruz French Bakery

A few treats that I baked for the Breakers soccer tournament. The brioche Vendeenne is a specialty of the French west coast.

Brioche Vendeenne, Madeleines and walnut bread.

Francois and Isabelle are moving in their new house

Isabelle and Francois have a new house. We helped them move their stuff but before Claire and I had enough time to bake some tart and bread.



Claire's puff pastry tart.














New bread looks and tasts good.














Isabelle and Francois's new garden.












Benoit is really helping since I played the lazy boy taking pictures.




















Claire is helping too.
















Benoit still in motion :)

















Lucas's big jump. They were trying really hard to land on me, so I had to back off so they did not hit me.














Nice garden with strawberries.

Bernie's house

On Saturday night, Isabelle and Francois invited us for the dinner at Bernie's house.
We had a good time with the great foods and breads.




Walnuts and Raisin Breads.












Benoit is relaxing...











Nice kitchen










Isabelle and Francois watching the slide show.

Polka bread

Once a week, I will prepare a bread for the weekend. The Polka bread has a special lattice cuts (similar as a Polka dance moves) and a flat shape which make it easy to break just with your hands.

Making bread can be treaky but the reward of having a hot and fresh bread to eat compensate for the somehow long process.





Levain ready (just water + bread flour + yeast) after 2 hours



















The dough has been kneaded for about 10 minutes and is ready to rise












The bread is shaped, cut and floured and ready to go to the oven using the Baker's peel.














Look great. The brown colors come from the caramelized sugar which is naturaly created during the baking process.


























The crumb should be airy like the bread from your favorite bakery.