SRS BIZNIZ baking day
May. 28th, 2011 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricI made bread! The last time I tried to make bread I made a sort of rock, so this is an exciting new step in my culinary skills. I wasn't even deterred by the fact that it was a coolish and dismal day.
Turns out that if you prove your bread by placing it on top of the stove while the oven cooks other things, the bread rises in about half the time the recipe predicts. Efficiency!
First I made fruit bread dough, from the recipe in Alison Thompson's Bake (although elaborated on - added more kinds of fruit, and some cinnamon).
Then I made muesli bars, loosely based on a Nigella recipe, and liberally adapted by myself, K and assorted bloggers between the original recipe and us. My idea of liberal adaptation was to throw in every kind of dried fruit I could find, plus glace cherries, cinnamon and nutmeg. End result is that I've made Christmas Muesli Bars. They're delicious, but seasonally inappropriate and also a bit too sweet.
Just before the muesli bars were done I knocked back the bread dough and started on pie - I had a container of frozen baked veggies and gravy from the beef cooked in ale two weeks ago, so I thickened that with mashed potato, more or less after the fashion of this pie recipe, which I got from boosette a while back. Added mushrooms and a proper puff pastry lid this time (the pie recipe above had a breadcrumb top, for no good reason).
The bread went into the oven not long after the pie, and came out about fifteen minutes after it, all crusty and bread-like. I need to figure out a way to get more of the fruit INSIDE the bread (perhaps add the fruit before, or with, the flour, rather than late in the kneading process) and less on the crust, but aside from that I'm pleased with my day's work. The bread's only a small loaf, but I halved it and put one portion in the freezer - I suspect it won't stay fresh for long, and we don't eat bread very fast around here.
Turns out that if you prove your bread by placing it on top of the stove while the oven cooks other things, the bread rises in about half the time the recipe predicts. Efficiency!
First I made fruit bread dough, from the recipe in Alison Thompson's Bake (although elaborated on - added more kinds of fruit, and some cinnamon).
Then I made muesli bars, loosely based on a Nigella recipe, and liberally adapted by myself, K and assorted bloggers between the original recipe and us. My idea of liberal adaptation was to throw in every kind of dried fruit I could find, plus glace cherries, cinnamon and nutmeg. End result is that I've made Christmas Muesli Bars. They're delicious, but seasonally inappropriate and also a bit too sweet.
Just before the muesli bars were done I knocked back the bread dough and started on pie - I had a container of frozen baked veggies and gravy from the beef cooked in ale two weeks ago, so I thickened that with mashed potato, more or less after the fashion of this pie recipe, which I got from boosette a while back. Added mushrooms and a proper puff pastry lid this time (the pie recipe above had a breadcrumb top, for no good reason).
The bread went into the oven not long after the pie, and came out about fifteen minutes after it, all crusty and bread-like. I need to figure out a way to get more of the fruit INSIDE the bread (perhaps add the fruit before, or with, the flour, rather than late in the kneading process) and less on the crust, but aside from that I'm pleased with my day's work. The bread's only a small loaf, but I halved it and put one portion in the freezer - I suspect it won't stay fresh for long, and we don't eat bread very fast around here.