I've been baking bread for a couple of months now. It began as an experiment a while back, and after destroying one loaf I've made it my personal crusade to make a decent bread. I've yet to do so, but I decided to document my latest attempt for the world to see. I'd like to say that I started out strong, and I really thought this was going to work out. For a unicellular fungi, yeast is an awfully fickle creature.
This recipe is for a King Arthur Flour "Guaranteed" Honey Oatmeal Bread, it contains the following ingredients:
3/4 c. lukewarm water
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 T. active dry yeast (or 2 3/4 t. instant yeast, although I've found in my adventures that even the instant stuff prefers being activated first...)
2 T. honey
1 T. brown sugar
6 T. butter
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce (I only had the sweet stuff... maybe that's what screwed this up...)
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. mashed potato flakes
2 1/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
2 T. oats for sprinkling over the top
Now in general, you're supposed to add the yeast to some of the water with a pinch of sugar and wait until it bubbles (about 15 minutes). I'm not sure HOW MUCH it's supposed to bubble, but this was definitely bubbling so I went for it.
After combining the ingredients, I had a dough that looked like this:
I covered the dough with a towel, and left it to rise in my pantry (because it's really warm in there) for a little over 2 hours. The recipe said it's a slow riser, so I wasn't too surprised at the length of time it took for it to rise. After about 2.25 hours, I had a dough that looked like this:
I didn't take them from exactly the same height, so it's hard to tell, but it has just about doubled in size, which is the idea. From here, you "gently deflate" the ball and shape it into an 8" log that goes into a bread pan to rise for another 2 hours or so. This is what it looked like after the gentle deflation:
Now this is usually where I seem to go wrong. How exactly does one "gently deflate" a ball of dough? I mean, it's pretty heavy, so when you pick it up it automatically sinks under its own weight. I don't get it, but I'm 99% sure this was where I faltered.
After allowing this to rise for not 2, but 4 hours (I went to watch Lost and decided to give it some extra time) I brushed the top with milk and sprinkled the oats over the top. I baked it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, and this is what I ended up with:
Now I'm usually pretty self-confident about my baking skills, at times to the point of conceit. But this has to be one of the sorriest attempts at bread making in history. It's not even brown on top. It tastes similar to what I imagine softened cardboard covered in honey tastes like. An overall failure, I have to admit.
If anyone has any advice on how to make this better, please enlighten me. I'm reaching my wits end with this bread making stuff and I don't know how much more I can take. Tom Wheeler always made such delicious breads... I can't seem to understand why mine are bent on sucking. Now the whites loaves I've been baking are getting better- but it almost makes me feel worse because they require so few ingredients. I just don't know.
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Now in addition to making bread, I've also been working on developing my green thumb. I have a nasty history of destroying any plant that comes within a certain radius of my responsibility, but my efforts as of late appear to be working. Maybe they know I'm fed up, and they're just being cooperative to humor me.
My first project is a miniature herb garden my mother gave me the materials for this Christmas. Here's how they look today:
My second project is more home made. I didn't have a kit or anything, just a whole bunch of unidentified seeds from Auntie and some well intentioned advice. This has also been surprisingly successful:
I'm not sure what I'll do with these little seedlings once they're bigger, but I'm trying to live in the now here and just cross that bridge when I get to it. I know a few botanists who would cringe at my logic, but I'm okay with it.
And finally, much to the dismay of my oldest brother Billy, I reclaimed this plant that he rescued from my unskilled hands last year:
I repotted it, and didn't kill it. There's not a lot more to say. I'm pretty proud of this.
That's about it for updates. When the stand is returned, you can look forward to hearing about it.
I'd also like to make a correction: Rebecca is from Wetlands, NOT Stormwater. I was berated for the oversight, and I apologize.
Listen to "West Coast" by Coconut Records
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