Bread takes a lot longer to make than you might think. A LOT longer. Hours longer! And apparently you have to pray. At least according to the recipe Mama Bird and I used. Mama Bird decided yesterday was the day to bake bread and found a recipe to use. We got the ingredients along with a few other items we needed for the rest of the meal and a next few days. And eggs. When we got home she read the recipe to me, and we decided to sit and rest a bit before starting the cooking process. After all the soup we were going to make wouldn't really take all that much time and the bread, well the bread should be a snap! (Oh how I wish there were a font for sarcasm!)
The first thing about this bread recipe I noticed was the fact that it tells you to pray during the kneading process. The second thing I noticed (when I finally read it myself) was that there is no ingredient list. I know that I don't always include one, but this recipe appeared to NOT come from someone's personal blog (there is too a difference!). Then sometime later as we were actually making the bread we noticed that this was a really lengthy project. Mix, set aside, knead, set aside, punch, set aside, divide, set aside, put in pans, set aside, bake, set aside. Every time we "set aside" it was a 20 minute to 1 hour wait, with two minor exceptions. It took us FOUR freaking hours to bake two loaves of bread! I mean it was good bread, and we learned that my metal mixing bowl could be used as an impromptu loaf pan, but really? Four hours? Maybe we should have prayed.
The soup was creamy potato & leek. And that also was a learning experience. For instance, you need to not let it cook for, say, four hours. And if you do, you will need a lot of milk to help thin it out once all those potatoes release all that starch into the broth. Seriously? The mixing spoon stood straight up in the middle of this stuff. It was more like slightly runny mashed potatoes than soup. Hence the milk. Again it tasted great, but clearly we need to try again another time. I don't think there'll be any complaints about that! Once again, I think it needs bacon! Maybe as a crumble topper.
My best friend from back home is coming up for a visit tomorrow, waaaaaaay early in the a.m. I'm looking forward to seeing her again, and then again at Halloween when I go visit her!
This year's costume is in the bag (no literally, it's all packaged up and ready to go)! I'm going to dress up as Julia Child (I can't remember if I mentioned that or not). And If I can ever figure out the posting pictures thing I will post some from that trip. I will be joined on this trip by a friend, and am very much looking forward to that too!
-Little Bird was not compelled by the power of prayer
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7 comments:
Arrgghh! Avis, how do I send you a pdf attachment?
Judy from Failblog - with a homemade butter recipe just perfect for your bread...
I have no idea. You may have to just type it in. Or... what cookbook is it in, maybe I can find it that way.
I still don't know how to get my own pictures on my own site!
Try some quick breads. My favorate is beer bread that you mix and put in the oven immediately. The sweetness of it goes well with salty soups.
Jenny IsBusy
Here's a recipe:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Beer-Bread-73440
I sometimes add herbs, or grate butter over the top.
Ok, here's my mother-in-law's bread dough recipe. Note that it's bread dough. For some reason I don't have baking info written down!
3 Tbsp Safe Instant Yeast
2 Tbsp Salt
1/2 C Sugar
1 cube Butter
1/2 C Potato Flakes (this can be left out)
3 C Scalded Milk
2 C Lukewarm Water
1/2 C Gluten Flour
5 C Flour
Mix all ingredients except flour. Add flour until sides of bowl are clean.
So, I don't have baking instructions, but I think you just need to let it rise until about double in size. I've seen her let it rise in her mixing bowl, then separate for rolls etc and let it rise again, but I think you could just put into bread pans and let it rise, then put in the oven. I would bake like any other bread recipe would say, and just keep an eye on it. My in-laws aren't very good with recipes, it's just "until it looks good!" Good luck!
25 to 30 minutes seems to be the ticket, for baking time and 425 appears to be the temperature that most breads use. There's something about tapping the crust to see if it sounds hollow. If it does, it's done.
Thanks guys for all the recipes!!
Isn't bread fun???
Jenny IsBusy
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