I have tried three times this weekend to make bread.
Friday I made the dough for the twelve-hour, no-knead country bread recipe from Cook's magazine, one I've made at least half a dozen times before and always successfully. Imagine my surprise when I took the rising bowl out of the microwave (cook 1 cup of water for 2 minutes, remove the water and use as a rising oven. No drafts. I always set bread to rise in the microwave), instead of a high, wide and handsome Clint Walker batch of dough I got Gabby Hayes.
Oh, well, the weekend was young. On Saturday I set my bread machine for a loaf of wheat bread. What the machine produced -- again using a trusted recipe -- was a densely compacted tan brick with a decided list to starboard.
Was it the yeast? Is my bread flour too old? Am I perhaps a bit slapdash in putting my dough together?
This morning I downloaded this recipe from the Fleischmann's website and followed the instructions to the letter. Unfortunately as I was in the middle of the mixing process the phone rang and I had to speak with a young lady from the Red Cross who wanted me to donate blood next week. I returned to my batter, finished the kneading, placed it in the rising bowl and the rising bowl in the microwave ---
-- turned around and saw the package of yeast cleverly hiding from me behind the stand mixer.
It's a good thing the spousal unit likes whomp biscuits because that's what he's getting with his dinner tonight.
It's the weather. This from a non-bread baker, but it's a good excuse. Some things don't work when the weather is rotten.
ReplyDeleteLife gets in the way. It is so irritating to have to throw out the ingredients, not to mention the time that was wasted.
ReplyDeleteeasy fix. flatten out your dough as best you can, sprinkle some of the yeast on the dough, roll up and knead a few times, and do it again, and again until the yeast has all been incorporated in the dough. Proceed as usual.
ReplyDeleteA bit more work, but what still an easy fix