Eva, the founder of Bake Street talks to Todelli about her source of inspiration, ingredients and her two favourite recipes for Halloween.
Bake Street & Todelli recipes interview
Nice to meet you Eva! How did it all start for you? Tell us your story in a few words.
My blog started as a hobby, a personal recipe book that I never thought could be read by as many people as they do today. It all started when the company where I worked closely and my husband encouraged me to start a cooking blog, I’ve always loved cooking. He’s a computer scientist and I’m a graphic designer, so between the two of us, we started working on the blog. It’s been almost 7 years now and today I’m really happy doing what I do.
Your recipes are each one a separate piece of art! How do you come up with new ideas and concepts?
Thank you so much for your kind words! A lot of the recipes I prepare come to me all of a sudden, anywhere. I have a notebook where I write down everything I can think of so I can work on it later. Besides having many cookbooks, I follow many blogs of people I admire and look for inspiration in everything around me.
What is the role that ingredients play in a new recipe?
I think we have to try to keep the essence of each product as long as we cook it. You have to respect it and try to know the best way to work it so that the result is satisfactory.
How do you go about discovering and selecting fine food products or ingredients?
I love going to the market, I think it’s one of the happiest things that makes me in the world. There are people who love to buy clothes, handbags… I love to buy ingredients, spices and everything that has to do with the gastronomic world. Many times I discover new ingredients when I go to the market, others of them I know thanks to cookbooks or chefs whose work I follow.
If you could choose one or two fine food products/ingredients that inspire you and that you love working with them what would those be?
This is very difficult for me… But if I had to choose without doubt would be bread and all kinds of viennosieries dough (brioche, laminated doughs…) I love to work with them.
Thank you Eva, it’s exciting to hear the story behind Bake Street and even more exciting to discover your recipes…
Recipe 01.
Sourdough charcoal bread
Active charcoal is not a current ingredient, in fact it is already mentioned in one of the oldest medical treatises that have reached our days, Eber Papyrus of 1550 BC. It refers to charcoal as one of the most powerful substances for healing of the plant kingdom. Until the s. XIX in France did not make the first tests to confirm the therapeutic virtues from the scientific point of view.
Bake Street & Todelli recipes interview
For the elaboration of this bread we will not complicate too much and the main reason is that we are interested to see and learn how the active charcoal behaves when it comes to bread making. For that reason the flours that we will use will be simple, if we do not have T45 we can substitute it for AP/bread flour and control the final hydration.
Instructions
FIRST DAY
Make bread dough.
- In a large bowl add flours along with charcoal and water, mix with your hands (in my case I used my KA for 4 minutes) until it is well hydrated and looks smooth. Cover with plastic wrap or cotton cloth and allow to make autolysis for 20 minutes.
- Add sourdough and mix to speed 1 for 15 minutes.
- Once it is fully integrated, add salt and continue kneading.
- Transfer to a work surface, without flour, and knead by hand to finish.
- Combine kneading with resting time. Knead 2-3 minutes and let sit 5-6 minutes. Total time kneading by hand will be 4-5 minutes.
- To check the gluten mesh, we must always do it after a rest.
Read the full recipe at Eva’s Bake Street blog.
Recipe 02.
Hocus Pocus Book Cookie
Bake Street & Todelli recipes interview
The first thing you think about wanting to create the book is that the eye can be made with modelling chocolate. The idea is not bad, but I wanted to make something “more real and faithful” to its appearance. I wanted it to shine, almost like a toy.
Luckily I had isomalt, white dye powder (she uses liquid), silicone mould that could be adjusted to the size of an eye and a friend with a sugar paper printer. The most complicated thing was in my hand, now all that was left was to put it into practice.
The material you will need to prepare the 6,1 inch x 4,7 inch (15,5 cm x 12 cm) cookie is as follows:
- Baking tray, two teflon sheets, adjustable roller and small roller
- Piping bag and 1 JEM tip
- Chocolate and Corn Syrup
- Isomalt, white dye powder or liquid
- Silicon mould 1,57 inch/4 cm diameter semi-spheres
- Sugar paper with 0,3 inch (1,8 cm) diameter eye print (you can google it to find websites where they sell it personalized )
- Brushes for food use, cocoa powder and dye gold and silver powder
Read the full recipe at Eva’s Bake Street blog.
Follow Todelli & Eva on Instagram for more inspiration recipes to come.
