I'm so tired of all the extra, unnecessary ingredients in store-bought food. A simple loaf of bread has a magnitude of "fake" ingredients including such bizarre things asazodicarbonamide (found, in the UK, to be a respiratory sensitizer and can increase the risk of allergic reactions to other ingredients in the food such as dyes) , calcium propionate (a preservative, which is slightly toxic and, strangely, can be and is used to give rats a model of human autism), and, of course, high fructose corn syrup. It's too much. And bread isn't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to random crap in our food, but it is a good starting point.
For years I've been planning to start making my own food and/or buying fresh made local food. Putting for the effort it takes is so worth the reward I think. Now that I've moved into my apartment I can finally get started on my plan! And so I have. First stop: bread.
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| Recipe and tools all ready to go |
I used this recipe from Get Up Off Your Butt And Bake (a fantastic blog you should all check out). I got all ready and set off for my first attempt at bread, hoping for the best and wearing my cutest apron for confidence.
It took no time at all to start twirling my little kitchen into an absolute mess. And it was only going to get worse.
Check out that yeast! Look at it rise! That started at about 2/3 cups! Beautiful!
I just got my dough hooks in the mail Friday. But as soon as I started mixing I feared my little hand mixer wasn't up to the task of this recipe. My bowl was a little small for recipe as well. The recipe, halved, makes two loaves of bread and 20 scones (or three loaves of bread but I wanted to try out the scones - bad choice as you will see later). Well, the dough didn't cooperate with my mixer, that's for sure. At one point my little dough hook fell out, unable to support the weight of the dough climbing up on it. The dough also took victim my spatula, pulling the spatula off of the handle.
Finally I just sighed, put down the mixer, and went to work the good
old-fashioned way: kneading by hand. I would have done that anyway but
was worried I would over-knead it.
I didn't have a bowl big enough to let the dough rise in, so I went ahead an pulled out my great big sauce pan. It worked pretty darn well too!
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| Look at that! Beautiful! |
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I tried to shape mine nicely like she does on her site, but it didn't go so well. I may have also abused the left one too much trying to get it to look "right."
One of my loaves rose faster than the other, so I baked them separate. The one that didn't raise at the right speed was the one I fear I handled too much trying to shape it. During this I attempted scones...I won't go into the details but they died a painful death. Afterwards my mom (happy mothers day mom!) informed me I should have never attempted to cook them in oil like she said to. Lesson learned.
My first loaf looked great, despite a piece of crust falling off when I turned it onto the rack. My second loaf...struggled. It sort of deflated in the oven. Not sure why. If you happen to know, please share!
Though my bread doesn't quite look perfect, it tastes great! Thankfully! And I hear it only get's easier. It will be easier too once I understand my oven a little better. I think it may bake a little quicker than most recipes call for, but haven't made enough to yet be sure.
So I have my first bread! I'm looking forward to taking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to work tomorrow with my fresh bread, homemade jam from the farmers market, and peanut butter (still not homemade but I'm taking small steps).
Stay Lovely,
Katelin
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