Apologia

[lloigor]

 

John Bratby/ Jew Chew Honeydew

Just as a forward:  There is a difference between apology and apologia.

Spending time baking lately.  It warms the house and soothes my soul.  I haven’t been writing much lately.  I feel my brain a-working in there, chewing on something, but it hasn’t come to term yet and the gestation is probably at an equivalent point to the seventh or eighth month of a pregnancy, when women get surly and just want the damn thing done.

I am publishing this on both sites for my small number of correspondents.  Just a heads up that I will publish a chapter tomorrow, but then I will be doing holiday-type stuff for the next couple of weeks.  So don’t expect a chapter after tomorrow until January the fifteenth.  Just saying.

Hope everyone has a merry christmas and a happy new year, or whatever holiday you call this time of year.  I tend to think of it as christmas, but that is slowly changing to my considering it as the solstice.  Either works.  

Screed

Spending time doing things that make sense to me.  This is becoming a vanishingly small subset of the possibilities open to me.  Current infatuation is with bread.  Simple, plain bread.

Now, a lot of this is facilitated by the Kitchenaid stand mixer that I found at a thrift store a while back.  I strongly feel that this item was mispriced ($ 60.00 USD).  It appears to be one of the ancient models, made prior to the manufacturing improvements of the last twenty years.  It weighs a ton and is build like a tank.  Apparently it is even repairable.

So I am making my own bread now.  This is great in the winter as now the heater can stay off and the heating of the house, while staying pretty much the same, now yields my daily bread and BTU’s to keep my old ass warm.  A clear win in December and January.

I am starting pretty basic.  Just sandwich bread.  

Since I am publishing this on both sites, I have decided to name this recipe “Aunt Beast’s Bread”.  

Aunt Beast’s Bread (Rev 2.0)

Step One

1-½ cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

½ tablespoon dried yeast.

Put the warm water into the bowl of the kitchenaid, add the sugar and mix, then sprinkle the yeast on the top of the sugar water.  Let it sit for a half-hour.  Check to see that the mix is frothy and bubbly and then go onto the next step.

Notes

Gotta get the yeast revved up.  I really did try to delete this step, but I haven’t been able to say that it doesn’t help the end result.  Leaving the step out seems to make the bread just a little bit less good.  

Step Two

3 cups bread flour

¼ teaspoon of vitamin C powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup buttermilk powder

While the yeast is getting revved up, put all four dry ingredients into a container and mix them with a wire whisk until you think that they are mixed.  It is harder than it seems.  I use a beat up old yogurt container with a snap lid (damn thing must be ten years old) and put everything in there and shake it.  

When the 30 minute incubation of the yeast is finished, dump the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl.  Attach the bread hook to the Kitchenaid, and let it mix on the lowest setting until all the water has been absorbed, when that happens, up the speed to 2-3 and let it knead for six minutes.  

Notes

I am testing just how well the Kitchenaid kneads.  The two or three loaves that have led to this recipe have not had the texture that I like in my bread, so this time I spent a couple of minutes hand-kneading it before letting it rise.

Step Three

I am currently of the opinion that two rises and a final proofing are the way to go.  A single rise doesn’t add to the flavor much.  Here is the schedule that I am using currently.

Rise One:  two and a half hours, then punch it down and give it a knead for two minutes.

Rise Two:  one and a half hours, then punch it down and give it a knead for two minutes.

Final proof.  Until it doubles.

Since I am still working out the “perfect” recipe, I am also playing with the temperature used in the “proofing” phase, right now it seems that I can control the proofing temp pretty well by putting the oven on at 175℉ and putting a cast iron dutch oven on the right-rear burner (above the oven’s heat vent) and letting the waste heat from the oven warm the area.

Step Four

Bake at 375℉ for 31 minutes.

This recipe did work out pretty well, the bread is a touch denser that I would like, so I am thinking that a little more water and a longer final rise will fix that.

The crumb is good, and it makes a pretty damn good roast pork sandwich.

Comments

Bread!

[(Anonymous)]

Joy of the season to you, we celebrate Solstice/Yule/Festavis here,just don't let on to the neighbors. Enjoy your holidays be waiting for the next read, whenever you resume.
Olfromnc
ps ever hear of Limpa bread, still using my granny's recipe

Re: Bread!

[lloigor]

I looked it up. When I perfect sandwich bread, I will give it a shot. Looks to be like Pane Segala from the Old Country (Sud Tyrol)

Getting educated...

[emily07]

....I was about to write: helup! I'm learning things here (apologia), I didn't come for that!
Still the last sentence had me wwondering: why bake bread for the sandwich, if you're already roasting pork :D
Have a great time!

Re: Getting educated...

[lloigor]

Because, the pork roast bakes the day before (But I will try your idea of co-baking). When I make pork roast, it gets a spice/salt rub and sits for three days in the fridge sucking up flavors. I roast it in the oven and then wrap and refrigerate. When it is cold, I slice it thin and keep it in the fridge for lunch sandwiches.

Much Yummy