I could go on for ages with the question of "who am I?", probing the depths of philosophy for a description of my existance - but seriously, who the hell cares about philosophy. I'm a recent graduate of a prestigious-ish college, currently unemployed but looking at the future with bright eyes and an eager stomach. My liberal arts degree might say "Would you like fries with that?", but I choose to view of it more as "Would you like pommes frites with that?"
Anywho, back to reality. I flew back from Tokyo on Monday (short story: Chris applies for grant, Chris recieves grant, Chris eats lots of Japanese food, Chris counts eating Japanese food as 'research', Chris flies home) and arrived at my current (and indefinite) place of residence: my parents. Jet-lagged and with food poisoning from an unfortunate choice of curried ramen from a 7-11 the night before my departure, I was at home for at least 4 days. On that last day, I was at the point where the churning of my stomach was dying down enough for me to notice my ridiculous sleep schedule.
I woke up at 5 AM Thursday morning, and decided that it was a good idea to bake bread.
In my zombie-like state, I happened to come across a nice little website for those who had never hand baked a loaf in their life (i.e., me). The nice folks over at The Fresh Loaf provided me with a few great lessons on the subject, which I recommend that you check out. Me, always looking for the healthy alternative, decided on a recipe for "Farmer's Bread" - I figured if this first go-round failed then maybe it might at least look nice. Anywho, I mixed the first ingredients together and let it sit for a couple hours. I guess i was supposed to do this step overnight... but who has time for that. I added the next set of ingredients and ended up with this:
Beautiful, I know. I'm a skilled mixer. Eventually, I got them separated into two tear-drop shaped balls and rolled out one side. A quick fold over, and you get this:
30 minutes later, and i'm impressed:
They looked pretty good. I was expecting them to get a lot more brown, but they didn't. Next time I'll brush them with an egg yolk to get a good color out of 'em. Taste-wise, they were good, wheaty without that smacked-in-the-head-by-a-hippy-with-a-sack-of-whole-grains feeling that you get with some storebought loves. They were soft and moist as well (some wheat breads feel like I'm eating a mount of compacted sawdust) so, overall, I'd say it was a success.
First post, over and out.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteAwesome to see your blog. I'm very excited to read your entries next year as I'll be across the country from you!
I started baking bread this year from scratch for the first time ever-- so I can sympathize with the predicament of how to start, where to find the recipe, etc. etc. But after about a dozen attempts at bagels, a few wonderful baguettes and quite a number of sandwich loaves, I have found that there are some places I continue to reference:
1. King Arthur Flour's blog (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/)
2. The Kitchn blog (http://www.thekitchn.com)
3. Kneadlessly Simple, by Nancy Baggett (Amazon)
They are fantastic resources for how to bake bread. Not sure if you're using a KitchenAid mixer, but Nancy Baggett's book is fabulous for the people who want to make bread without the aid of a mixer. Also, I'll try to find this amazing NYT article about a baker in Greenwich village who makes bread using yeast rising over long periods of time. I'll shoot you an email or tweet about it!
Anyway, hope you're well. Adding this blog to my Google Reader!
Best--- Peter
Pete,
ReplyDeleteI've been hand-kneading them (it's more 'rustic'?) And if you're talking about the no-knead bread recipe that was in the NYT, I'm already on it... next post :)
c
Chris-
ReplyDeleteI have always found that a neat and tidy kitchen before, during and after you're making bread, makes the end product even tastier.