Surprisingly, I had some free time today after my classes. After doing the necessary homework for tomorrow, I decided to do my second cooking project, or the "reach project" as we've begun to call it. I glanced at the cookbooks we have in the kitchen and was somewhat overwhelmed by the one specifically about bread. I had always wanted to bake a loaf of bread, but that book pushed me away from the idea...but I found a recipe online that laid out what I needed to do in pretty simple terms. While the recipe was from a website called The Hillbilly Housewife, I decided to give it a try.
On my trip to HEB for ingredients, I was overwhelmed by the many types of flours and yeasts to try. The option of white, whole-grain white, wheat, white whole wheat flours compounded by the plethora of yeasts (quick-rising, fast-rising, super fast-rising, and so on) made for one very confusing and decision-filled trip. I went with white whole wheat and rapid-rise.
As for the actual preparation, the 6 ingredients worked together well, and kneading was fun. Since I had never worked with active yeast before, I was somewhat afraid that the water would be too hot. Luckily it was not, and 3 and half hours later, I had dough in a bread pan ready to bake.
Then came the next challenge: how long to bake the bread? The website said 30-45 minutes at either 350 or 375, but I wasn't sure. The last thing I wanted to do was burn my creation...so I placed the bread in the unpreheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and waited.
As I opened the oven to a thick and heavenly smell I had never experienced before, I was somewhat concerned. My loaf was the same color as when I put it in. Further inspection showed that the loaf was actually baked to crusty greatness. I couldn't help but slop some butter on top and throw a pat on a slice for some pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment