Breads & Rolls – 1st full week
Lord am I tired. Monday and Tuesday our class ran long by about 30 minutes. This does not sound so bad until you consider class is from 7pm to 9:50pm and my drive home is 20 minutes. I am a little exhausted. Night 1 – We started with our 'sour' sponge for baguettes. I say 'sour' because we added half an onion to make a mock-sourdough. We also revisited two...
A Weekend Spent Baking
I tend to dive head first into projects that are of interest to me. At the moment, and it should come as no surprise to anyone, my obsession is bread. Now, we are not talking about the homogeneous loafs of bland white sandwich bread that line the shelves at the super-mega mart. What we are talking about is the hand crafted, rustic loafs of bread with distinct flavor, crustiness and texture. I had some minor...
More About Bread
Well, the pizza crust recipe from my text book ROCKED!! Crispy and crunchy on the outside with a soft chewy inside with an irregular cell structure. Perfect texture on the bottom of the crust too … crisp yet chewy. This is my new pizza crust recipe. Having to start the day before is well worth it! Sadly, it was eaten before I thought to take a picture, but as I am sure I will be making this...
Pizza Dough
I am making pizza for dinner, and I started the dough yesterday. The crust starts with a biga that was allowed to ferment overnight in a cold oven. (As it has been in the 30's here the last few days, the oven is warmer than the counter, and I know how cold inhibits yeast production) This morning I put the biga, which was puffy and had that lovely yeast smell that bread dough has, in a bowl that...
Spring Semester
When I made my first girlish attempt at higher education the semesters just dragged by. I felt like three months was a lifetime, and the time between semesters was just a blink of your eye. Now that I am older I find that all time, no matter what I am doing, goes by in the blink of an eye so I am not surprised that the Spring semester starts next Tuesday. I am, sadly, taking one class. Breads & Rolls. ...
Waiting for grades, and other observations
Grades come out this week at school. They are posted tomorrow the be precise. I am having a hard time waiting because, and this is typical of me, I am impatient. I am the girl standing in front of the microwave willing the pop corm to pop faster … or conversely scavenging for crackers because the three and a half minutes I have to wait are far too long and I will die of starvation before that pop corn is ready!...
