Cooking
We were having fried egg sandwiches for dinner, and I wanted a good bread for it. Something thick & hearty, able to hold up to squishing.
I admit, I don't bake bread on a regular basis; Alex is too much a sandwich monster to keep up with the demand (blame it on his growing boy-ness), so we buy a loaf of white fairly often.
It's not as if he's growing up on Wonderbread! He's seen me make bread plenty of times, and his grandmom makes it every weekend. He knows about kneading and rising, and loves to help.
Since what I wanted was a very basic, very simple, recipe, I was faced with a slight dilemma: with hundreds upon hundreds of cookbooks taking up space in an already storage-blighted house, finding just the right one would require an overnight bag, a map, and an OTC for headache relief.
I have a lot of cookbooks. A very large number of them are dedicated to baking....
I looked at Martha, I checked out the Bread Bible. But what I wanted was something homey, and I didn't really feel like giving up an entire day to something that would be consumed in less than ten minutes.
So, I grabbed my copy of The Good Home Cookbook (which I helped recipe-test!), and found what turned out to be a very easy white loaf. Dry ingredients, wet ingredients. Nothing outrageous or fancy. Went all Earth Mother on it, and mixed and kneaded it all by hand.
Rose beautifully, both times, and then it was ready to bake. Well, almost. It needed a good 'slash' down the top and a liberal basting of butter. Which it got.
Into the oven; the house smelled fantastic. Took it out, let it cool. It wasn't until later that I noticed something...
That nice 'slash' I gave the dough? During baking, it had...um, expanded. Into a rather more provocative shape.
I may have to give this bread an "X" rating!!
Blog Party's gone ghoulish: this month we're serving up Gross Anatomy!
Get full details here, and RSVP no later than next Thursday, 16 October. Hope to see you there!
Tagged with: Food and Drink + Bread + Sandwiches + Baking + Georgia O'Keefe + The Good Home Cookbook+ Cookbooks
- Wartime Wednesdays: Honey Twist Bread
Common Causes of Inferior Bread POOR FLOUR---A cheap flour may be an expensive flour because it makes a loaf inferior in texture, flavor and volume. OLD YEAST---Dead yeast plants cannot leaven bread. Old compressed yeast cakes or dry yeast which has...
- Daring Bakers: The French Bread Also Rises
I was determined to complete February's Daring Bakers challenge, as I missed the Lemon Meringue Pie from January. I had no idea what it would be, but when I discovered breadchick had declared it French bread-making time, I couldn't have been...
- Wartime Wednesday: Rolled Cinnamon Bread
Characteristics of a Good Loaf of Bread SIZE---A 1-pound loaf is a good household size. One cup of liquid and 3 cups of flour will make a loaf weighing about 1 pound. SHAPE---A well-shaped loaf is symmetrical. The top is rounded but the middle...
- World Bread Day '06: Pao A Moda De Sao Miguel
What a wonderful idea! Zorra is celebrating that most wonderful food...bread...by asking bloggers to bake or buy bread today, and tell the world about it. We're quite fond of bread in our house, so I was happy to have an 'excuse' to bake!...
- Home Is Where The Heart Is - And If Homemade Bread's There Too, That's Nice!
I'm bad. There I go, leaving y'all with nothing - NOTHING! - for an entire week - again! But you see, it is not for of lack of "want", nor is it too much "must do" or need of perfection that 'causes me to not post so much at the moment. It's...
Cooking
Georgia O'Keefe, Call Your Baker!
We were having fried egg sandwiches for dinner, and I wanted a good bread for it. Something thick & hearty, able to hold up to squishing.
I admit, I don't bake bread on a regular basis; Alex is too much a sandwich monster to keep up with the demand (blame it on his growing boy-ness), so we buy a loaf of white fairly often.
It's not as if he's growing up on Wonderbread! He's seen me make bread plenty of times, and his grandmom makes it every weekend. He knows about kneading and rising, and loves to help.
Since what I wanted was a very basic, very simple, recipe, I was faced with a slight dilemma: with hundreds upon hundreds of cookbooks taking up space in an already storage-blighted house, finding just the right one would require an overnight bag, a map, and an OTC for headache relief.
I have a lot of cookbooks. A very large number of them are dedicated to baking....
I looked at Martha, I checked out the Bread Bible. But what I wanted was something homey, and I didn't really feel like giving up an entire day to something that would be consumed in less than ten minutes.
So, I grabbed my copy of The Good Home Cookbook (which I helped recipe-test!), and found what turned out to be a very easy white loaf. Dry ingredients, wet ingredients. Nothing outrageous or fancy. Went all Earth Mother on it, and mixed and kneaded it all by hand.
Rose beautifully, both times, and then it was ready to bake. Well, almost. It needed a good 'slash' down the top and a liberal basting of butter. Which it got.
Into the oven; the house smelled fantastic. Took it out, let it cool. It wasn't until later that I noticed something...
That nice 'slash' I gave the dough? During baking, it had...um, expanded. Into a rather more provocative shape.
I may have to give this bread an "X" rating!!
Blog Party's gone ghoulish: this month we're serving up Gross Anatomy!
Get full details here, and RSVP no later than next Thursday, 16 October. Hope to see you there!
Tagged with: Food and Drink + Bread + Sandwiches + Baking + Georgia O'Keefe + The Good Home Cookbook+ Cookbooks
- Wartime Wednesdays: Honey Twist Bread
Common Causes of Inferior Bread POOR FLOUR---A cheap flour may be an expensive flour because it makes a loaf inferior in texture, flavor and volume. OLD YEAST---Dead yeast plants cannot leaven bread. Old compressed yeast cakes or dry yeast which has...
- Daring Bakers: The French Bread Also Rises
I was determined to complete February's Daring Bakers challenge, as I missed the Lemon Meringue Pie from January. I had no idea what it would be, but when I discovered breadchick had declared it French bread-making time, I couldn't have been...
- Wartime Wednesday: Rolled Cinnamon Bread
Characteristics of a Good Loaf of Bread SIZE---A 1-pound loaf is a good household size. One cup of liquid and 3 cups of flour will make a loaf weighing about 1 pound. SHAPE---A well-shaped loaf is symmetrical. The top is rounded but the middle...
- World Bread Day '06: Pao A Moda De Sao Miguel
What a wonderful idea! Zorra is celebrating that most wonderful food...bread...by asking bloggers to bake or buy bread today, and tell the world about it. We're quite fond of bread in our house, so I was happy to have an 'excuse' to bake!...
- Home Is Where The Heart Is - And If Homemade Bread's There Too, That's Nice!
I'm bad. There I go, leaving y'all with nothing - NOTHING! - for an entire week - again! But you see, it is not for of lack of "want", nor is it too much "must do" or need of perfection that 'causes me to not post so much at the moment. It's...