Painted Whole Grain Bread for Momma

 I had the chance to visit Jan D' Atri and Momma (Momma's name is Livia) at their book signing on Saturday and decided to take Momma some bread since it was her birtday this week! What do you think?

 I especially love this new spin-wheel design I came up with. I think it's totally retro!

There you go. Just a little "had to share".

Spring Time Mother's Day Bread Class with Lin Sue Cooney

Remember all the fun we've had with the amazing, remarkable, talented and fun Lin Sue Cooney and her bakery Sweet-Stops?!! Well I've got something awesome to share with you!

 It is a month away, but I can't stop myself from telling you what I've been baking today! Mother's Day braids and Forget-Me-Knots (glorious dinner rolls)! What do you think? Aren't they just fantastic?!!

 The pearls and lace one turned out really pretty! 

 All that being said, I get to visit my friend Lin Sue Cooney from NBC 12 here in Phoenix for a wonderful joint class in May out at Honeyville! We're teaching Mother's Day Breads like this on May 3rd!  If you're interested in joining us, contact the number below:

There you go!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Today's Bread-Art Photo Shoot...and a NEW Book!!

Announcing the next Chef Tess Bakeresse cookbook! 
I just signed a book-deal for a Bread Art craft and baking book! That is the next release after the Gourmet Meal in a Jar book that I'm also working on currently!

 The bread book is due to be released January of 2014!! We're super excited around here and today we had my friend  Laura Sokol, the  photographer, at my home taking pictures for 4 hours! I took these photos I'm sharing here. Hers were just amazing! I won't even tell you how many hours I baked and prepped for this first shoot. Yes, I never sleep. It's sick how hard I work, but then again, that's part of life isn't it? I love what I do. I wouldn't change a thing!   That being said,  I wanted to share some of the beautiful breads! There were many more, but here are some of my favorites... 

Goldfish sweet bread

 Sea-shell sourdough on a bed of French grey sea-salt.

 Light rye and herb star-spangled loaf.

 Yeast-raised Gingerbread and orange crown loaf.

 Garlic and herbs of the vine bread.

Fleur-de-lis for me (personal-sized French buns)

 Rye-decorative dough embellishments.

 Spot-On Bread

 Rose-petal Cardamom-infused  Sweet Ciabatta 

 Natural herb-and spice enveloped baguette tutorial

Fall herb and sweet pepper Ciabatta 

 No-Knead Fleur-de-lis

 Lavender and Lilac Rolls

 Ribbons and wrap sandwich buns

 Sweet Pea Floral Tutorial

That's just a sneak preview of many many more things to come! I love you my darlings! Thank you for your encouragement and sweet support. It is what keeps me going every single day...that being said, tonight, I'll be sleeping like a rock. It has been a wonderful day.

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Valentine's Decorative Bread and Class With the Ladies

This week, in light of the love holiday we adore so much here I had two classes two days in a row on sweetheart bread making. One was my usual baking at the teaching kitchen in the Honeyville Farms AZ store . Today was teaching a private in-home class to 4 beautiful ladies. I love classes when I get to bring the goodie baskets!

 Today's class was hosted by darling April B. She's been a student for a year or so at the store but this was our first private class. I don't normally teach these anymore but April's won the class during a drawing at our new kitchen ribbon cutting event. It was fate. 

After kneading bread together, forming loaves and baking them, I thought I'd share the latest fun with the bread made simple by the use of food-grade cake stamps. Wilton made them but on their website it is looking like they are no longer available. I was able to find them Cakerysupplies.com and most of my local craft stores still have them in the cake decorating section. This was made using the 4 piece heart set. 

I use Wilton Icing gels and colors. Lightly painting the colors onto the stamps seems to work best.Generally I glaze the loaf with a little of my favorite Duff-metallic-gold-cake-graffiti

I also very much prefer his Duff-decorator-paint-brushes. They never leave pieces of brush on my breads.

Yes I do realize Duff is the Cake guy. I don't know if Duff knows his stuff is rock-star-cool for bread. I'm just telling ya what I love.

I love results I can count on.

 Plus, it is just nice to not have to be an artist! Play. Get your craft on. 

White White Icing Color  is what I use for the white. Make sure your bread is slightly warm for the color to hold best. Lightly paint the stamp with the color. Dipping in too much color will make a gooey mess.

 I had a really fun time seeing gals who said, "I'm not an artist" make the breads pretty simply! I love that!!

 Now, it may not be the normal bread you see every single day...but I think this will be the next big movement in baking trends. If I have anything to do with it, it sure as heck-fire will be!!  Glory be to the bread!  Right ladies?!

There you go my darlings! Make some fun bread!

Want more? See: My Chef Tess Painted and Decorative Bread Techniques

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

New Fall Decorative Breads...Pumpkins, Golden Woven Loaf and Spider-Pan Dulce

This morning I'm heading to West Phoenix to spend some time with a lot of remarkable ladies in a cupcake class! We're making fondant Halloween cupcakes (taught by Lin Sue Cooney) and I'm introducing them to the idea of Decorative Painted Bread {Edible Centerpiece} Bread! I'm so excited! Lin Sue Cooney and Cindy Leech are the owners of  Sweet-Stops  . Lin Sue is also one of the Anchor women at NBC. That's how I met her. At any rate, I'm bringing a Halloween Tablescape with me (details after the class). I thought I's show ya'all a quick sneak peek of what the breads look like...

Pumpkin Bread...This one is about 18 inches across...it just doesn't look that big here.

 This one is about 8 inches across and embellished with edible glitter and a nice princess swirly-curly-cuteness...

I loved the look of this bread perhaps most of all! Such a classic loaf for fall!

Spidey-bread, Spidey-bread does whatever a spidey bread does...

 There you go! 

Painted Whole Grain Bread for Momma (and Jan D'Atri)

 I had the chance to visit Jan D' Atri and Momma (Momma's name is Livia) at their book signing on Friday and decided to take Momma some bread since it was her birtday this week! What do you think?

 I especially love this new spin-wheel design I came up with. I think it's totally retro!

There you go. Just a little "had to share". I'm loving these ladies! Jan invited me to come back on the radio show and help her with a private cooking class in July! Yes! Dancing the happy dance!