Bread musings
Dec. 5th, 2007 09:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillHomemade bread is a blessing. Good homemade bread, fresh and warm from the oven with a little butter, rivals good sex. In my opinion. Perhaps the years of hunting for a good store-bought loaf without wheat, and now the fact that if I want it I have to craft it myself, has something to do with that -- but I've always appreciated bread.
I took the raisin bread that I had success with last time, took out the raisins and cinnamon and all but a tablespoon of sugar, and ended up with an excellent basic white. It needs a little less yeast -- I'll cut that in half and proof it first, to compensate -- but it's heavenly with a touch of butter. It also has egg, butter, and dry milk in it, which means it doesn't go hard within hours like French bread. I baked four little loaves and brought half of one with me to accompany my soup for lunch today; the rest will get frozen and brought out to be freshened in the oven the next time I want warm bread.
It rose very obediently, and "popped" a decent amount when it hit the warmth of the oven; the original recipe said that it would rise "prodigiously", but that was a batter bread, not a proper dough. I was quite happy to see the rounded tops up above the pan edges when I peeked into the oven, though. I think I can coax one pack of yeast to do that as well as two, if I call on my beige thumb.
I really need to dig out my grandmother's white bread recipe; that also has dry milk, and a little shortening if I recall, but I don't think it uses eggs. It's very familiar to me, though, as between her and my aunt, their household had a loaf of homemade bread every week during my childhood years. The household is no longer what it was, but I can keep making that bread.
Using the mixer is definitely the way to go with these doughs; I wouldn't want to wrestle them by hand when I'm this tired. It seems to develop the "gluten" (pectins, really) even better than hand-mixing, too, which is an asset. I can set the mixer to jobs I wouldn't want to try, like incorporating egg or oil into a dough, and just let it work at it while I do other things. Good tools are wonderful things.
Why anyone would want to use a bread machine, and miss out on handling the dough, I have no idea. It's soft, warm, and velvety-elastic, with a delightful weight to it... kneading is one of the things I love most about breadmaking, and I had sorely missed it when I was forced to switch to batter-breads because of the wheat allergy. Cutting, shaping, and tucking it into its little pans -- I bought four miniature ceramic loaf pans on sale, they're superb -- is fun too.
Life is generally good right now -- while I'm still waiting on ENT to call me for a medical appointment, my throat is only a tiny bit sore right now, and the systemic inflammation seems to be a little better. I'm dog-tired, but no one expects much from me this week, and I get a nice four-day weekend before finals. I get to drop a class for next quarter, so I'll take three (and three in spring). I'm waiting for the garden to dry out a little, and for me to have some time, before I finally transplant stuff. And my home life is very good. Yay December.
I took the raisin bread that I had success with last time, took out the raisins and cinnamon and all but a tablespoon of sugar, and ended up with an excellent basic white. It needs a little less yeast -- I'll cut that in half and proof it first, to compensate -- but it's heavenly with a touch of butter. It also has egg, butter, and dry milk in it, which means it doesn't go hard within hours like French bread. I baked four little loaves and brought half of one with me to accompany my soup for lunch today; the rest will get frozen and brought out to be freshened in the oven the next time I want warm bread.
It rose very obediently, and "popped" a decent amount when it hit the warmth of the oven; the original recipe said that it would rise "prodigiously", but that was a batter bread, not a proper dough. I was quite happy to see the rounded tops up above the pan edges when I peeked into the oven, though. I think I can coax one pack of yeast to do that as well as two, if I call on my beige thumb.
I really need to dig out my grandmother's white bread recipe; that also has dry milk, and a little shortening if I recall, but I don't think it uses eggs. It's very familiar to me, though, as between her and my aunt, their household had a loaf of homemade bread every week during my childhood years. The household is no longer what it was, but I can keep making that bread.
Using the mixer is definitely the way to go with these doughs; I wouldn't want to wrestle them by hand when I'm this tired. It seems to develop the "gluten" (pectins, really) even better than hand-mixing, too, which is an asset. I can set the mixer to jobs I wouldn't want to try, like incorporating egg or oil into a dough, and just let it work at it while I do other things. Good tools are wonderful things.
Why anyone would want to use a bread machine, and miss out on handling the dough, I have no idea. It's soft, warm, and velvety-elastic, with a delightful weight to it... kneading is one of the things I love most about breadmaking, and I had sorely missed it when I was forced to switch to batter-breads because of the wheat allergy. Cutting, shaping, and tucking it into its little pans -- I bought four miniature ceramic loaf pans on sale, they're superb -- is fun too.
Life is generally good right now -- while I'm still waiting on ENT to call me for a medical appointment, my throat is only a tiny bit sore right now, and the systemic inflammation seems to be a little better. I'm dog-tired, but no one expects much from me this week, and I get a nice four-day weekend before finals. I get to drop a class for next quarter, so I'll take three (and three in spring). I'm waiting for the garden to dry out a little, and for me to have some time, before I finally transplant stuff. And my home life is very good. Yay December.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 18:52 (UTC)I need to try the french bread recipe again. I haven't maanged to get it to rise enough, so it tastes good, but is very dense.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 00:33 (UTC)The other is that if I am going to write some sort of book on this in the foreseeable future, I don't want the recipes already plastered publically across the net. When I get home I can send you the recipe for this basic white by email, since I seem to have a satisfactory result; the recipe may not be streamlined yet for anyone's use, but a practiced cook should be able to manage.
The french bread has one big flaw that I haven't mastered yet -- mine tends to rise a little too much, then forms a hard crust in the oven while the internal structure collapses; you get a crispy crust, a big air pocket, then moderately dense bread in the bottom. (I haven't been working on that puzzle lately...) If you can't get it to rise, check your yeast and the rising temperature; my biggest problem is keeping it from rising too much and overreaching itself.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 19:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 19:00 (UTC)Because it can take me a week (or longer) to actually take the ten minutes to wipe out the pan, measure out the ingredients, and set the machine to run. If I was trying to make it by hand, it would never get done.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 00:35 (UTC)