slow rise… take it easy…
Before Dina, bread was a complete mystery to me, a gem better forged in expensive bread makers (and even then the likelihood of success at home was, in my mind, meager to iffy) or otherwise dropped by storks into supermarkets. I never figured I’d try to make it myself, but then Dina was like “ohhhhh but you SHOULD.” She’s a breadevangelist, which I didn’t know until the subject came up and I found myself well stocked on bread recipes and breadmaking websites.
So, I set off on my bread journey. Sunday’s first attempt produced something that was pretty close to what I expected to get. Which is cool! Yay! Thank you Dina! The recipe was for french bread, but I wanted bowls that I could scoop out and pour soup in, so I formed the amoebic forms you see above and hoped for the best. The end result was hard round boules with impossibly unforgiving crust with a soft nummy middle–much like the type of bread that comes swaddled in cloth napkins before dinner, that people hack and pull at, which is the main thing I associate with french bread, so something must have gone right.
It’s definitely a little yeasty though … I have consulted the master (Dina) and the takeaway points, as well as quick chili pizza, are after the jump.
So my dough baby became a dough monster, and I didn’t know to stop it.
When I finished kneading, I greased the bowl, plopped my big round dough ball in, turned once, and left it. I came back to it a bit later and it was already big! It passed the finger test! Cool! But … it hadn’t been more than a few minutes, so I thought, well surely it must sit for a little bit longer…?
Oh no dude. Dats not how it works. Apparently with bread dough, size is the important thing, not time. (If you know what I mean…). When your dough is doubled (or for french bread, triple), you are done rising. It probably took mine almost no time at all to double because 1. there was too much yeast in my recipe and 2. the water was rather warm. It didn’t kill the yeast but it made the dough super warm, and apparently warmth = quick rising. Slow rising = lots of yummy flavor. My bread apparently missed the flavor train.
Anyway I came back from errands and the dough had filled the bowl to capacity and was starting to deflate (which probably contributed to the bread tasting a little more yeasty than it should have). I shoulda punched it down and gotten on with it earlier, when it had just passed the finger pokey test. Ideally-for-next-time though, I shoulda used less yeast (no more than 4.5 teaspoons per 6 cups of flour, where my recipe had called for 5.5 teaspoons) — and, probably used cooler water. Not cold because that would slow the rising too much, just cool enough that it doesn’t double in 5-10 minutes. 110 degrees, prescribes Breadmaster Dina.
Anyhow, so thar’s be the lessons learned. Now here’s chili pizza.
Materials:
- zucchini, sliced into circles
- 1 tbsp butter
- bread
- fave leftover chili
- shredded cheese of choice
- diced tomatoes
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350
- Melt butter on stovetop at medium heat, add zucchini, let sit until they get a little softer – incidentally, I just discovered that I am absolutely INSANE for zucchini cooked in butter OMG
- Cut top off of bread (like a bagel) – assemble chili, cheese, zucchini circles, tomatoes
- Bake about 15-20 minutes
NOM.
Jeffrey said,
June 12, 2011 at 6:47 pm