Trial #1: I make bread (hopefully)

[trystinn]

I've chosen Focaccia as my first attempt because it does not require starter, which I don't have because I just bought the yeast (along with $60 of its favorite baking companions) this afternoon - I am, however, making starter tonight so I can attempt rustic breadmaking on Sunday and Monday. (Details to follow)

Observations
#1: Recipes for bread are suprisingly and shockingly short on details.

#2: There is now more flour in my hair than in the mixer.

#3: Husband was sufficiently wary enough to offer to go pick up dinner from a restaurant - thereby, in a singular master stroke, making himself scarce during this amateur attempt at breadmaking while getting to be the hero when he arrives home with hot food that I have no responsibility or requirement to cook.

#4: The smell of yeast "curing" has got to be the strangest smell on earth, one that not even the bassethound will beg for a taste of.

#5: "Lightly flour surface" is a bald-faced lie. "Massively flour surface" is of considerably more use, exponentially.

#6: There is now more flour on my clothes than in my hair (see #2).

#7: "Room temperature" is too subjective a term to be of any use.

#8: Waiting for yeast to "cure" is almost as boring a task as waiting for dough to rise, and only manages to be a tad bit more interesting because of the science involved in creating new life; albeit yeast-life.

#9: Two kitchen timers are barely enough for this attempt.

#10: "Bread starter" is surprisingly bizarre enough to warrant the need for comparison pictures for grading the accuracy of one's attention to detail.

#11: Friends you have not heard from in months will call you to chat and catch up while you are trying to bake bread.

#12: Baking bread by hand is sufficiently interesting an experience that truly, it should be an assignment for 1st degrees at Lammas. And for all I know, will be.

Update to come when focaccia comes steaming out of the oven. Stay tuned.


"Gorgeous bread, the topping is rosemary, sage and kosher salt:



Willing Volunteers:



And, yes, it tastes FABULOUS"

Comments

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

One of the best books I ever got on breadbaking was one my Mom gave to me. It was published in 1969, and it's called Homemade Bread - By the editors of Farm Journal. It's a book that came out before Betty Crocker Kitchens decided that adding more yeast made things "better"--sorry, but in my world, longer rises = more developed flavor--cutting out a rising, or making it so it's only 1/2 as long in time does nothing but make flavorless bread, IMHO. Anyway--enough ranting.

The book is amazing, has different styles of recipes (loaves, rolls & buns, coffee breads/rolls, yeast specialties (waffles, flapjacks, etc), cool-rise, easy mix, batter breads, quickbreads), and is short--only about 152 pages (including index).

The recipes are simple to follow, and they have excellent tips on how to do the various steps.

Anywho.. :) I believe wild_heart got a copy of the 1969 publishing recently.. and something tells me I told her where to find it, but that's escaping my mind right now...

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Yummy! I recently read a book called "Rustic breads" or something similar about a gal who worked in a bakery known for its rustic breads. That's the recipe I'm trying this weekend.

Btw, the focaccia is almost gone. Next time, I make two loaves!