Skip to main content

Cooking from Scratch


I'm trying recipes for an activity during the long, isolated days. Today I thought no-knead bread would be a good place to start learning about baking bread.  I watched two youtube videos.
Both went on about using just a teeny amount of yeast--1/4 tsp--and 1 1/2 cups of hot water.  Too cold and the yeast will go dormant.

You guessed it, my concept of hot water was not the same as the presenters.  I think I killed the yeast.  Also the dough was not the consistency of those in the video--much thicker.  Which means my 3 cups of flour are not the same as theirs.

So I set it to rise and started another batch.  Jim says with flour, the cup is an inadequate measure.  Needs to be weighed and that means grams of flour.  I have a scale but I had to work carefully through weighing the flour, weighing the flour container, multiply by 2 because I weighed flour in batches. Why didn't we go metric in the 60s?

I baked the first.  Didn't really rise at all but it did brown off nicely in the dutch oven that is used to steam it for 30 minutes at 450 F, then brown it by removing the cover for 15.  Taste is fine, the bread just has no air holes.  You could bowl with it. John likes it and took a slice to the basement to eat.

The second batch is shaggy but dough still doesn't look properly wobbly.   It did rise, but not like theirs.


Batch 3 is from the NYT recipe and requires 18 hours to rise. link   During all that time it develops complex flavor and gluten strings.  Try, try again.  3s the charm. Need to learn to score top.


.

Comments

  1. SchutjerMarch 27, 2020 at 10:38 PM

    I'll make my Kaiser rolls tomorrow and let you know how they turn out.

    I want to try the French loaf again too. For the French loaf, I'm using the book that Debbie Hayden got me for retirement. It's aptly called "Flour Water Salt Yeast". The guy gives extremely detailed instructions. Temperature at each stage is very important to him. Things worked pretty well the first time until the overnight proofing basket. I used the pastry cloth that was provided. It got wet and sticky. I looked back at the pictures in the book; he didn't use the cloth - just the naked basket.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SchutjerMarch 28, 2020 at 9:28 PM

    I made a half recipe of Rolls - 8 altogether.
    I'm going to fire up the crockpot tomorrow and have barbecue beef sandwiches - now with homemade rolls.
    Looking forward to it.
    I haven't tasted a roll yet, however Aaron did and liked them a lot.
    Robin, your loaf looks great.

    Your Album share just came through.
    I'll respond to that.
    I can't see how to insert a photo of my rolls in this comment area.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PamelaMarch 29, 2020 at 5:06 AM

    They look beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Empty Mall of America

Here's a lifetime experience: an empty Mall of America. No cars in the ramps; echoing, empty space overlooking a few American Red Cross volunteers who manage the blood donors in the mall's north lobby. When we scheduled our donations, we were instructed to wear masks or we would be issued masks.  Volunteers guided me through the process:  show us your RapidPass reservation. Clean your hands. Now show us your donor card.  Oops, you touched your phone, time to sanitize hands again. The staff were vigilant; they sanitized anything that touched me--the blood pressure cuff, the table that I leaned on, the chair I sat on.  And honestly?  I valued the opportunity to get out of the house on a legitimate, sanctioned trip and would happily go donate weekly if that was an option.
Post a Comment
Read more

Milestones in a Pandemic

Baptisms, graduations, weddings and funerals are the ties that keep our family links strong. Our nephew is a high school senior this year and we're mourning all the 'lasts' that he will miss during quarantine: the graduation open house, senior prom, athletic team events. Another milestone is the upcoming christening of our first grandchild, which will be limited to two parents, two godparents and four grandparents.  Our family's hand-sewn christening gown has been worn by generations of infants, but never for such a small gathering. Today we carefully unpacked the slip and gown, fastened all the tiny buttons and snaps. It fits.  The traditional gathering of family and friends will be held at some unspecified time --when it is again safe to pass babies from lap to lap and hug friends.
Post a Comment
Read more

Herd behavior strikes

Monday, March 16  Today was our first official day of mindfully staying isolated at home and it was very boring until 7 pm when Jack came over to "shop" from our pantry. The grocery stores were cleaned out, he said. Empty shelves.  No milk.  No meat except prime steak. "So sad," I said. "Help yourself; we have plenty." "And now that they're closing the liquor stores..."  "!! The liquor stores!  Why would they do that?!"  Don't know, he said, just look it up online, message from the governor, starting tomorrow. I didn't look it up, jumped in the car and made like a bat out of hell for Total Wine.  We were running low in several categories and I'd been meaning to go.  The store certainly looked like the last day.  Parking lot was packed, lots of people pushing full carts holding grimly to the cart handle with antibacterial tissues.  One guy was talking on his phone, coordinating with his wife at Costco to pick ...
2 comments
Read more