Fresh Bread.

 Better stated - eating fresh bread with butter. 
 Tonites varieties were Serrano/Cheddar and Honey Wheat. After "scaling" or sizing the raw dough for my neighbors, I had about a half pound of each - so I put them in a basket together to rise, and then, when all others had been baked, this 'combo loaf' had its turn in the oven. 
It cooled during dinner but called to me when I was in the kitchen putting the bread in the oven for tomorrows LTN feed at the park.
 
Soft. Not very crusty. Delightful. The Honey/Wheat had a bit of crunch from the cracked wheat, but was mostly soft. The Pepper/Cheese looked a little scary - with the somewhat big slices of serrano looking back at me. But, once buttered, the crumb was soooo soft and a little tangy.

Fresh bread is a delight. I think it is a true gift from God. Flour, water yeast and a little salt and in this case, some honey and cracked wheat in one, and some serrano pepper and sharp cheddar in the other. Simple. Tasty. Glorious

Permit Renewal time

Well, my first renewal has come up and, this is the logical time for trying to get a few new products approved.  I tried two basic things:  Artisan Bread with Chickpea Flour and Ye Olde White Bread.  These were pretty simple (from a regulatory standpoint).

The other two were kind of tests - of what I can get approved.  Nothing risque, but something a little less 'plain jane'.  The idea of the fig bread (already approved for fig n fennel) was to have two varieties, but one label.  Why not be able to 'check a box' as to whether there were fennel seeds or honey - or even both?  Then, I could retire the fig n fennel label in favor of this dual purpose label.  Ahh, that gave Mr. Inspector a little heartburn.  The solution - eliminate the risque part - and just add another label.  OK

The idea with the focaccia label was to show the ingredients for the basic bread - and then have alternate ingredients (basil, rosemary, scallions, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese) with a checkbox.  So, again, one label - many varieties.

The good news - the 'checkbox concept' was ok - but fresh herbs and mozzarella were not.  He said something about the CFO products needing to be 'shelf stable' and, if I used fresh rosemary or basil or scallions - something might go wrong.  I guess he didn't understand that when fresh basil, for instance, was placed on top of a bread (or inside) of bread that is cooked fro 20 minutes at 450º - even fresh basil would come out dried. I decided I would rather have the approval than win an argument,

It was ok to put any of those ingredients into the bread (or on the bread) dried - but not fresh.  Alright - then dried it will be.

Approval is expected any day.  Last year I found out that I was approved about 2 weeks after it happened - because of Christmas timing.

More to come.