Adventures in Baking

Monica took a book out of the library recently about bread baking, which I've been peeking at recently, and I decided to try my hand at it. Results were ... amusing.

The first recipe was 100% whole wheat. I made the dough, let it rise, let it rise a second time, made a dough ball as the book instructed, and put it into a loaf pan. The book said to grease the pan, but the pan was non-stick, so, that counts, right? Bake for one hour; remove. I tried to get the bread out onto the cooling rack. Nothing doing - it was stuck. I used a wooden spoon to pry around the sides, and then flipped it over and pounded on the bottom of the pan. Whoosh! Out came the middle of the bread, leaving the crust conveniently behind. It has since occurred to me that this is exactly what children across the country have been seeking for decades, and I really ought to go into business making crustless bread, but that was not actually my first thought. Instead, I removed the crust-hulk, and then stuffed the innards back into the bread. It was like taxidermy bread - not that I've ever been a taxidermist, mind you, but I've read about them. I called it "broken bread", and we had broken bread for snacks and sandwiches today. The kids liked it, and it actually tasted OK, but this was not the success I had hoped for.

So, this afternoon, I set out to make the dough for a white bread recipe. The book says to refrigerate the dough, so I haven't tried it yet, but I already had a good story. After mixing water, yeast and salt, I started adding flour. Hannah really wanted to help, so I let her stir. After adding several cups of flour, it becomes hard to stir, so I asked her if she needed help. "Oh, no, Dad, this is easy!" Really? I look over and she is stirring with all her might and the entire bowl is spinning around with her. The flour is quite still, but the whole apparatus was rotating rapidly, and she was as pleased as could be. I finished adding the flour, and then took back the bowl to do the (rather more boring) task of actually incorporating the flour. I'll try baking this batch tomorrow - hopefully no taxidermy required.