Bread!

[oyceter]

Lo and behold! I made bread yesterday, and it did not suck! In fact, it's actually quite tasty. I'm very pleased with myself, given that my prior two efforts were as dense as a rock, and about as tasteless. I ended up doubling the salt of the slow-rise bread recipe in Joy of Cooking, kneading for much longer (which resulted in a stuck workbowl, but that's another story), letting it rise in the oven with a pan of hot water underneath for moisture, and letting it benchproof for much longer.

Except now I am out of King Arthur bread flour. Le sigh.

I also made heresluck's trusty granola recipe, except mine is honey + molasses + cranberries + cashews instead of raisin and honey and almond. I actually like the almonds better, but I forgot to get non-cashew nuts. Actually, I'm not even sure why I have cashews right now, given that I don't like them as much. I also attempted the molasses cookies from Cook's Illustrated's holiday baking edition, which were very chewy and molasses-y, but never developed the cracks like the recipe said they would. Oh well. My coworkers aren't complaining anyhow.

Given my last attempt at cooking ended in March of the previous year, I'm not making any grand statements about finally cooking again. But I'm hoping that I will continue to do so, despite the annoyance of dirty dishes.

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yay bread! I can never get mine to come out as nicely as Wim's no matter what I do, but tons of kneading does seem to help.

Probably you had cashews due to not having eaten them yet, since you don't like them as much. That's what happens at my house.

[oyceter]

I think I'm going to try Alton Brown's recipe next... Also, I was having fun rewatching the Good Eats episode on breadmaking while actually making it! It's so much easier when you can see how things should look intsead of just reading about it!

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

I bought the same holiday baking edition, though I have yet to make anything from it. I just like how Cook's Illustrated tests every possible thing and how they give the "why" of what they came up with. The gingerbread is something that I wanted to try.

[oyceter]

I know! I adore Cook's Illustrated because they tell you the why, just like Alton Brown!