The joys of Friday: having a busy and productive half-day at work, then going home and enjoying a half-weekend day. Somehow this adds to feel like a full work day AND a full weekend day. Me + math = sweaty forehead.
Last night I mashed cardamom. Sounds like Cockney slang or something you’d do in a mosh pit. It was for some Irish soda bread. I’m sure that scores of Irish bakers turned over in their floury graves when I used both cardamom and currants. Well, it turned out damn good. These soda-leavened quickbreads are satisfying because they can be done during weeknights and be a part of dinner.
Also churned out another rustic rosemary bread, utilizing fresh rosemary donated by our lovely neighbors. For all zero people interested, I got rid of the rye flour and used all bread flour. I added even more water, bringing the water ratio up to a nail-biting 80 percent, which turns the dough into a sticky Newtonian fluid. But it doubled beautifully and looks good. Taste test this weekend.
Baby Harbat required extra hugs
this morning. Every activity that was didn’t involve holding resulted in Sad Face. She burst into tears when a book fell on the ground, which brings to mind the insta-cryer on Seinfeld who got misty-eyed when she dropped her hot dog.
So begins Friday!
Writer, architect, father, husband.
Attention Yeastmaster: can you provide a basic bread recipe? I have a baking stone, an iron skillet, and a nearly limitless capacity for home-baked bread, thanks to my freakish, exercise-derived caloric deficit. Also I am a pig.
[isto é bom]
Hello pig! I'd say the most important component is a standing mixer. I think you can knead dough in a food processor, although that method is usually reserved for pigs and dogs. So you might be in luck. If you have to knead by hand, you'll be in for a workout. What equipment do you have?
Yes, we have standing mixer. Often it drinks a beer while mixing. (It is me.) I fear no physical trial! BRING IT ON, BIG BOY </scottish accent>
Well, the help with the mixer is not the strength component, though that helps. To get a bread with great texture it helps to have the dough REALLY sticky. And a mixer with a dough hook can work with much sticker dough than you could with your hands–my current recipe makes such sticky dough that just transferring it from the bowl to the board is an unholy mes. Maybe you should go with a no-knead dough. Do you have a large crockpot with a lid?
Sticky? Dough hook? Yes, we have a big cast-iron stewpot with a lid. That'll work, right?