I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions. Big sweeping changes are pretty rare and are usually motivated by something life changing. A life-threatening illness. The birth of a child. The loss of a family member. But, I do like to start the year off by taking stock and making a few, very concrete, goals.
In 2009, one of my goals was to get more comfortable with yeast. Yeast has always intimidated me. A lot of the steps are pretty subjective. (What does it mean that dough is "smooth and pliable"?) In 2009, I made bagels, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and lots and lots of pizza. Besides some mishaps with pizza baking at the beginning, it all went pretty well. I can easily whip up some pizza for dinner or a batch of cinnamon rolls. But at the end of the year, I felt like I had cheated because I never made a good old fashioned loaf of bread. So one of my goals for 2010 was bread.
Above is a loaf of white sandwich bread from a recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog. Those folk know their bread
I'm pretty happy with my first loaf. It's incredibly soft and pliant. I can't wait until tomorrow to make some toast and spread it with melty peanut butter.
I'm hoping 2010 will find me eating homemade challah, whole grains breads, and some of the more unusual breads from 500 Vegan Recipes, like Mole Bread, a spicy cocoa bread.
4 comments:
Go you! Yeast is indeed intimidating. I cheat and use a bread machine most of the time. I got a no-knead bread book as a present recently, and I hope to try that soon.
I pretty much cheat too. My stand mixer did all the kneading. All I had to do was transfer it to another bowl for the first rise, and then loosely shape it into a log before I put it in the pan for the second rise.
Yay! I hate working with yeasted breads because of the kneading. It sends me into a panic attack. I hate the feel of dough on my hands.
But good for you! It looks great.
Yum. It looks great.
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