Summer holidays and the start of Cranberry Christmas Bread...*and finished

So, poor old phylliscaroline has been a bit lonely for a few weeks while I struggled through the traditional pre-Christmas end of year work, social and biscuit-making frenzy. Then I suffered through the traditional holiday earache. Okay that's not a tradition, but it did mean that I spent a lot of time in bed with a hot water bottle on my ear, and missed making two pies (*and a cake as well) with the Alpha Bakers. I've come South for Christmas with family again this year so at least while I was sick I was surrounded by the beauty of my parent's garden and some beautiful summer weather. 

And this is as far as I've got with the Cranberry Christmas bread. Yes I'm only at the beginning biga stage, staring hopefully at the starter, looking for movement. (And now that I'm away from it, I must say one thing about the humidity of Darwin is that you never have to worry about whether the room is warm enough for fermenting yeast.) I'm working with different ingredients in an unfamiliar kitchen so I guess we'll see how it goes. I'll update the post once I've baked the bread, hopefully tomorrow afternoon.

Update* 

It was quite a challenge to get this finished in between watching Star Wars, last minute shopping and Christmas Eve dinner preparations. But I managed to follow the steps...

Et voila! It may be a bit dry (probably better tomorrow) but very nice with blue cheese. It will be a nice addition to the cheese plate for Christmas lunch.

Next week the Alpha Bakers are cooking White Christmas Peppermint cake.