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.
