Since I am taking a Professional baking course right now, I have convinced myself I need to practice what I learn. But fitting baking into your schedule is pretty difficult. Especially when you would rather hold down the couch with the latest good read. But I extracted myself from the couch today with the intent of making 3 different recipes. I thought this would not take all day. I thought wrong!
On the list for the day:
Weekly Batch of French Bread (seeking perfection, starting at zero)
Batch of Zuchinni Carrot Nut Bread
So, I got started on the French bread first thing this morning. This is a formula that calls for the sponge method of bread making. Basically this is a process whereby, you make prepare a small amount of the flour and water necessary for the bread with the yeast required and let that ferment together for a period of time before making the rest of the dough. (For those of you who were paying attention to the last post, this sponge process is pre-12 step program) The sponge gives the French bread a ton more flavor than a traditional formula - it is basically yeasty goodness with butter on top!
Once the sponge was put together and had fermented for it's required time, I got started on adding the rest of the ingredients. Then I got all excited because this was to be my stand mixer's innagural dough mix (it was a big day for the mixer!). My excitement soon melted away when I discovered my stand mixer does not have the power (insert poor Robin Williams impression of Scottie from Star Trek here) to knead dough properly. Basically, what happened was a whole lot of shaking and very little combining. So, I got a crash course in hand kneading. Thankfully, I had the benefit of watching a guy from my class on Sunday do this very thing because our dough was too big for the mixer at class. Sadly, this also means that I had no idea what my hands were supposed to be feeling.
Somehow, I made it through all this unscathed (not so sure about the dough) and got to the benching process. Then the waiting game began. Once both my lumps of dough were ready, I formed them into rather pretty French loaves and waited for them to rise. After a quick water wash and some cuts, they spent time in the oven and came out beautiful.
We cut into one and had some with dinner and Drew declared that they "taste like French bread." Success!
Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the results, but there are pictures of the other recipes in the future posts about my baking day.
To my husband's chagrin, I rarely make the same meal twice. This is the chronicle of the meals made and the kitchen used.
Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Baking School: Week 4
Hello, my name is Leah and I am a breadmaker.
For the last week, I have been working on a 12 step program. No, not that one. The one that results in warm kitchens, yummy smells, and yeasty goodness of a whole other sort: the 12 step program for baking bread.
At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for this year to learn how to make bread. But ,I have to be honest, I was pretty intimidated by my goal. I had never attempted anything beyond banana bread and I had never used yeast in my life. So, imagine my terror when I opened my textbook and found out the process of making bread was even more involved than I had ever imagined!
Thankfully, our teacher is helpful in guiding us through the program, defining terminology, and encouraging us to go for it. Over the last week, we made: focaccia, sweet rolls, danish, brioche, french loaves, and whole wheat dinner rolls. Whew! That is a lot of bread and a lot of patience! If there is one thing I am learning about baking in general each week, it is patience. The process of baking is not something you can just speed up because you are running short on time, or you just want to get it over with. Attention to each of the 12 steps is necessary in order to acheive the best possible results.
So, my teacher suggests that we select one type of bread and make it until we know it fully. I think I am going to choose french bread. My goal is to make it at least once a week for a while. That means lots of bread to give away! That also means I will be well on my way to fulfilling my New Year's resolution.
For the last week, I have been working on a 12 step program. No, not that one. The one that results in warm kitchens, yummy smells, and yeasty goodness of a whole other sort: the 12 step program for baking bread.
At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for this year to learn how to make bread. But ,I have to be honest, I was pretty intimidated by my goal. I had never attempted anything beyond banana bread and I had never used yeast in my life. So, imagine my terror when I opened my textbook and found out the process of making bread was even more involved than I had ever imagined!
Thankfully, our teacher is helpful in guiding us through the program, defining terminology, and encouraging us to go for it. Over the last week, we made: focaccia, sweet rolls, danish, brioche, french loaves, and whole wheat dinner rolls. Whew! That is a lot of bread and a lot of patience! If there is one thing I am learning about baking in general each week, it is patience. The process of baking is not something you can just speed up because you are running short on time, or you just want to get it over with. Attention to each of the 12 steps is necessary in order to acheive the best possible results.
So, my teacher suggests that we select one type of bread and make it until we know it fully. I think I am going to choose french bread. My goal is to make it at least once a week for a while. That means lots of bread to give away! That also means I will be well on my way to fulfilling my New Year's resolution.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Mmm...Cozy Soup
It happened last night. I made dinner! Not just slapping something together like I have been doing for the past three weeks or taking the easy way out and buying dinner out. No, this was actual dinner and it was good. It was good to get the cooking juices flowing again...maybe I will keep this thing up!
Dinner for last night. Lentil with Spicy Italian Sausage (recipe from Bon Apetit January 2010) with French Bread. The flavors on this one were fabulous and it smelled great while it was getting going. I left out the parsnips, because what have parsnips ever done for anything? Drew had gone and picked up some fully cooked spicy hot links from Target (their Archer Farms brand) and they were perfectly flavored, lots of jalapeno bits in there! The best part, Drew didn't have to spice the soup at all!
On a sad note, I have figured out that my breadmaker is only half useful. I think there is something wrong with the heating element because it does not bake bread. It makes a lovely dough, but it is too high-minded to deign to do something like make bread (oh, the foolish pride of machines!). I have been putting it to good use lately in the dough department and finishing the breads in the oven; but I tried to make a loaf, start to finish in the maker yesterday and it started mocking me just after the dough was prepped (this involes an annoying beeping sound worse than an alarm that must be electronic speak for, "Think again"). Drew agrees with me that this is sad because the house still smells like bread, but there is no bread to be had. Not to be deterred, I simply had to have bread yesterday; so I ran out to Fresh and Easy and got a loaf of french bread. I was sad because I could have made my own, but I used the last of my yeast on the doomed loaf.
Anyway, that was a good news, bad news sort of post, but mostly good news because dinner was great!
Dinner for last night. Lentil with Spicy Italian Sausage (recipe from Bon Apetit January 2010) with French Bread. The flavors on this one were fabulous and it smelled great while it was getting going. I left out the parsnips, because what have parsnips ever done for anything? Drew had gone and picked up some fully cooked spicy hot links from Target (their Archer Farms brand) and they were perfectly flavored, lots of jalapeno bits in there! The best part, Drew didn't have to spice the soup at all!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Bread Making for the Month
As stated in a previous post, one of my resolutions for this year is to learn how to make bread. I have had a 66% success rate thus far and thought I would share with you my results.
The first attempt at bread was the easy way out...I made pita bread. With the help of the bread machine (purchased by my husband a scant 3 and a half years ago), the dough was prepared. This was not without some trouble because I did not realize how difficult it was to seat the bread pan in the machine...you really have to push down hard to get it in the right spot. So after Drew's help and encouragement, I got the pan seated properly and in a short time had dough! I threw it in the oven for the specified time and... SUCCESS! It tasted really good too!
The second attempt was for Jalapeno Bread. Drew was very excited about this prospect. This was the first time I tried to prepare the bread from start to finish in the breadmaker. I don't know what went wrong, but the bread did not bake properly. It was not finished when the machine said it was finished and so I put it on a timer for another 20 minutes. It still was not cooked because the machine shut itself off after about 5 minutes. FAIL!
The third attempt, I got a little ambitious. I decided to make French bread for our guests on Saturday night. As per the first attempt, I made the dough in the breadmaker and then finished it in the oven. This was the first time I had to deal with timing on rising and baking. It came out just great! SUCCESS!
I am not sure what to make this week, but I have discovered finishing the bread in the oven has been my only successful mode of breadmaking. I want to give the machine a chance to redeem itself this week. Any suggestions?
The first attempt at bread was the easy way out...I made pita bread. With the help of the bread machine (purchased by my husband a scant 3 and a half years ago), the dough was prepared. This was not without some trouble because I did not realize how difficult it was to seat the bread pan in the machine...you really have to push down hard to get it in the right spot. So after Drew's help and encouragement, I got the pan seated properly and in a short time had dough! I threw it in the oven for the specified time and... SUCCESS! It tasted really good too!
The second attempt was for Jalapeno Bread. Drew was very excited about this prospect. This was the first time I tried to prepare the bread from start to finish in the breadmaker. I don't know what went wrong, but the bread did not bake properly. It was not finished when the machine said it was finished and so I put it on a timer for another 20 minutes. It still was not cooked because the machine shut itself off after about 5 minutes. FAIL!
The third attempt, I got a little ambitious. I decided to make French bread for our guests on Saturday night. As per the first attempt, I made the dough in the breadmaker and then finished it in the oven. This was the first time I had to deal with timing on rising and baking. It came out just great! SUCCESS!
I am not sure what to make this week, but I have discovered finishing the bread in the oven has been my only successful mode of breadmaking. I want to give the machine a chance to redeem itself this week. Any suggestions?
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