baking – The Solo Geographer

Turkey Trots and Cranberry Pies.

Catherine makes a pie with a couple mistakes but is still tasty. She also ran a 5k.

Thursday was Thanksgiving in the United States! We had a good time in my family. My sister was able to fly out, and we had brunch and also turkey dinner.

I also ran a 5K Turkey Trot because I am, last I checked, completely weird. Well, not the Turkey Trot part, actually, because it’s one of the most popular race days in the United States. But the fact that I ran it alone, and also ran it competitively. I mean, the only competitor was myself, but it counts.

As you can see, I had a blast.

No, actually, I did enjoy it! I just got a new phone without a headphone jack, and I forgot to grab the proper headphones, so I ran the entire 3.1 miles without music. It was kind of fun hearing other people’s conversations as I weaved around the slowpokes. I also managed to PR, and finished the race with a time of 31:05. That beat out my former Personal Best by 21 seconds. I would have definitely run it faster if it weren’t for the fact that the race was VERY hilly, including a killer hill at the very end. They’re making us work for our Thanksgiving dinner!

They gave us doughnuts at the end so I can’t complain.

Wednesday night I started making a pie from my cookbook! The one I mentioned a few entries back. I saw there was a recipe for cranberry nut pie, and figured it might make a good thanksgiving treat. Even though I don’t care for cranberries, other people in my family do so I made it

Cranberries and water

Sugar.

Tasty

I’ve never cooked cranberries on my own before (again, I don’t care for them) so it was fun doing something new.

I actually somewhat misread the directions, as I was supposed to get the sauce to boiling and then adding other ingredients. But I cooked it down somewhat and then added everything but it ended up being fine. I used orange zest, flour, orange juice (squeezed from the orange I got the zest from), corn syrup, and pecans. The recipe called for walnuts but my mom wanted pecans. So I added all this, let it cook a bit longer, and then let it cool

Then it was time to make the dough! Now, I used All Purpose FLour, and we determined that next time I’m going to use pastry flour. The gluten over activated and the crust was pretty hard. But I’m sure it’ll be good if I try this crust recipe again.

COLD butter.

This Pastry cutter saved my life when I finally bought it.

Ya gotta get your hands in there and make sure the butter chunks are the right size! I somehow missed photos of me adding water a bit at a time. COLD water.

This was a beast to roll out.

Eh, it works.

I was so hyper focused on getting the lattice right that I forgot to get pictures of the process. You can also see where one of the strips broke, but eh, it’s just getting eaten. I put it in the fridge to back on Thanksgiving.

I was so out of it I forgot to egg wash or milk wash the crust and sprinkle sugar. It didn’t matter too much, the crust was way too hard. HOWEVER it wasn’t BAD tasting. And I got two thumbs up for the filling! It was a hit. SO I think with a proper crust it would be amazing. My mom even wants to see about adapting it for the bakery!

Who needs to cut a proper slice? Hehe.

I did not try it, though I meant to (in spite of my dislike of cranberries). I just tried a bit of the crust. And I’m writing this at the airport as I”m about to jet off on a 3 week adventure so I won’t get to try it. This time!!

Hopefully my next update will be something super cool about where I’m traveling too. Have a good weekend, friends!

Shaker Herb Bread? Yes, Please.

I like bread.

I dunno what this is, but it looks pretty bizarre, and that’s what I’m about.

(okay, it’s an illustration from an herbal from 15th century Italy. Not as weird as the Voynich manuscript though).

Herbal, herbs, close enough! I made herb bread today. My book calls it Shaker Herb Bread, so it most likely was developed from a recipe that the Shakers used for their bread. Those Shakers had some good stuff. Flat brooms, Herb Bread, weird religious beliefs (okay maybe not that one). It’s all there!

First things first, my yeast! Since I got a new kettle this summer, I can control the temperature of the water much more easily. I actually set it on the lowest setting, and then pulled the water off once it hit 100F. I then sprinkled the yeast on it. I set it aside as I scalded the milk and it bubbled beautifully.

That foam! That foam I tell you!

I actually used up all my whole milk for ice cream so I had to use 1%. Shame. I was gonna be lazy and scald in in the microwave but I figured I’d go old school. You heat it up until it just starts to bubble. the end. Scalding is easy.

I actually had to cool down the milk somewhat, so I stuck it in the freezer and then creamed sugar with melted butter and the salt.

Eggs.

MY FOAMY YEAST.

I then took all purpose flower and mixed it with rosemary, sage, and oregano. Only a 1/4 tsp for each, but it packs quite a punch!

I added the flour a bit at a time until it incorporated. I used the paddle attachment for almost the entire process because I’ve realized that trying to incorporate the yeast with the dough hook does NOT work. And once the dough got too stiff I pulled out the ol’ standy by.

That’s right, my ol’ mitts. I really got in there and kneaded the rest of the flour in so that it would be mostly incorporated when I put the dough hook attachment on.

I’d actually halved the recipe the day before and it didn’t turn out. There are several factors as to why, but I decided to do the recipe as written and really be careful. What this photo shows is the window pane test. You want to make sure the gluten is properly activated. So you pinch off a piece of dough and spread it out like this. If you can see through it without it breaking, your gluten is goin’ strong.

Dough has risen.

PUNCH.

I then separated the dough into two loaves.

And I divided them unevenly. My dad, “Don’t you have a scale?”
“Yes, I do, I was just lazy.”

Judge me, it’s fine.

It’s too cold in my house for dough to rise properly so my oven-turned-proofbox it is!

Ah there we go. BTW these new bread tins are so nice! My dad got them for me. THey’re also tall.

Brushed a little butter on the tops. By the way, I HATE silicone brushes but they’re much more sanitary than actual brushes.

Pretty! They didn’t rise as much as I thought in the oven (They might have even collapsed slightly) so I was pretty upset with how dense they were. Then we tasted them and they were really good, so I think they’re supposed to be dense loaves. The recipe book didn’t say one way or the other but they make FIRE toast.

The crumb structure isn’t gummy, just a bit dense, but it’s tasty and that’s all that matters! Some breads aren’t gonna be as fluffy as a plain white bread you get at the store. And the herbs really sell the flavor of this. It’d make a good sandwich bread too, and oh I bet a bit of tangy mustard would be great with a turkey sandwich and a mild cheese!

Also, my house smelled AMAZING while I was baking!

So yes, another good recipe I’ll have to make a gain! I wonder if it would rise more during summer. I can certainly try!

I have one more recipe I’m going to bake before my big trip, and that’s for thanksgiving. Keep your eyes peeled, my friends! And then on November 26th I’m heading off on an adventure! I hope to be able to update the blog as I go so I’m looking forward to it! Have a good holiday week!

I guess they can’t all be winners

But I can certainly make pudding out of persimmons.

I actually made this bread last week, but work got very busy, as did everything else. I’m running a half marathon on Sunday, so I’ve been very wrapped up in training. Also registering for Graduate School, preparing for my 3 week long trip abroad… it’s no wonder I haven’t had much time!

Okay so my recipe this time was persimmon bread. Reading the recipe I was excited because it was so similar to the pumpkin loaf that was so delicious. But then… tragedy. There was literally no sugar anywhere in the recipe. And Persimmons aren’t as sweet as say, apples or something. But I decided mmmm, maybe it’ll be good. So I got super excited when I saw fuyu persimmons at Fresh Thyme (a grocery chain that’s similar to Whole Foods but maybe less bougie? IDK I’ve been to Whole Foods like twice in my entire life). I bought four and winced that it cost over $12 but soldiered on.

First things first I had to make persimmon puree, which the recipe did not instruct me on. I found a method online and this is what I did. I took the 4 persimmons and cut off the leaves and quartered them.

Prince REALLY wanted to photobomb. Plz ignore the mess on the floor my life is in shambles.

I put the pieces of persimmon into my crock pot and put enough water in to not-quite submerge the fruit. I also dumped in some cinnamon. I left it to stew for 6 hours.

Once they were soft, I drained them, then put a strainer over a bowl.

Boil ’em mash ’em stick ’em in a bread.

The pulp was being difficult so I pulled out the trusty immersion blender I “borrowed” from my mom. Then it was ready for the bread.

Flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Separately, I put in a cup of persimmon puree. I still had 2 cups leftover, but it was tasty so I thought I’d just eat it like applesauce later. I did not.

Lots of oil. Don’t tell the recipe blog commenters.

Eggs and melted butter.

So of course the butter seized because it was warm and the eggs were cold so I actually used the immersion blender again.

Then I started mixing in the flour mixture.

All mixed up and ready to bake.

I was roasting some bell peppers for dinner, please ignore those. Unless you like them, I don’t know your life.

So I baked it for over an hour and when I took it out, it looked okay. I let it cool for awhile and tried a bite. I did not get photos because it was Not. Good. Like, it wasn’t gagging me, but it did not taste like persimmons and it just tasted like boring quick bread with none of the fun stuff like sugar or flavor.

I wasn’t even upset when Nubie got into the bread because I knew I wouldn’t eat it. The loaf got tossed. I still had those 2 cups of persimmon pulp/puree left. The next day after this bread failure, I opened Chrome and saw a recommended article. It was for persimmon pudding. I read the article, interested, and realized it was less custard pudding (or snackpack puddings) and it was a baked pudding, closer to bread pudding.

I figured, why not! I had just enough pumpkin puree left and I like baked puddings. So I made it. And Reader, it was good!

It filled a whole casserole dish!

I took it to my folks’ house to try and I brought whipped cream.

It had a more mild flavor, but the sugar really helped. The whipped cream gave it a good contrast. It’s best warm. Even though the bread was very disappointing, at least I got something very nice after everything! Here is the recipe I used for the pudding: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/the-lasting-legacy-of-old-fashioned-persimmon-pudding/

Next week I hope to bake some good ol’ fashioned yeast bread, so stay tuned! I’m also hoping to bake a pie for Thanksgiving, so I’ll blog about that too since it’s from the old fashioned pie cookbook. Have a good weekend!

Pumpkin Bread 2: Electric Boogaloo

The second pumpkin bread!

Happy Halloween! Happy Reformation Day! I’m Lutheran, so the latter greeting is obligatory.

I had a rough start to my holiday, but I won’t get into that mostly because I don’t want to talk about it. I was going to bake this pumpkin loaf LAST week, but, well, I had an allergic reaction to a new medication and I ended up getting a shot of Benadryl and sleeping for like 5 hours so that obviously didn’t happen.

But no one asked so I’ll just get into it. Great, now I wanna watch Breakin’. Also, I finally cleaned off my counter so now I have lots more space AND I can roll out pie dough!

First things first, some good ol’ sugar.

An ENTIRE cup of vegetable oil. Mmm, delicious, delicious oil. Don’t tell the anti-oil people.

Action Shot!

Prince REALLY wanted some of this pumpkin puree. Eisley isn’t a fan, but both dogs also really like it. They DID NOT get any of this, it’s mine, all mine!

Gotta get those leavening agents (also put in baking soda).

I apparently haven’t bought ground nutmeg in years. But my handy microplane comes into use when I need ground nutmeg. That reminds me, I completely forgot to make my yearly aged eggnog. I still have a couple months…

Raisin.

Mmm Pecans.

Now to mix the dry into the wet!

This batter looks fantastic.

Since the recipe yields 2 loaves, I decided to take one to work!

After baking for an hour and ten minutes, it was finally done. It was at a bit of a lower temp so that’s probably why it took so long. I wanted to sew after I pulled them out, and I realized that the dogs would ABOSLUTELY get into these, so I couldn’t leave them on the counter. Especially considering the raisins. So I actually took them downstairs to my sewing area, where the dogs and cats aren’t allowed. Modern problems require modern solutions.

I took a loaf to my parents for the taste test, as per tradition. Sadly, my dad was at the bakery so it was just me and my mom but WE LOVED IT.

Look at that color! Those raisins! Those nuts!

Blurry shot of me stuffing my face. Mom and I both raved about it. Mom even said it was the best of the recipes I’ve done so far! This little cookbook has some real gems. This is DEFINITELY going to be made again (how many times have I said that? Ha!). I also really like pumpkin so I’m not surprised. I’m not sure what I’ll do next week but I hope it’s just as delicious!

I hope you have a safe holiday, and that your coming November is amazing! I may or may not have some EPIC travel plans after Thanksgiving, and hopefully this blog will see some amazing posts.

Bye now!

OOOOOOOOH Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Catherine bakes with nuts.

You know, I never was into Spongebob (I was a bit too old when it came out, I think), but that song is a bop.

It’s another bread post, y’all! I made Pineapple Nut Loaf. I meant to bake this weeks ago, but, well, I had some issues. And those issues being I was super busy at work, I was dealing with some stuff, and then I got the flu. The last one was weird, I didn’t even have a fever or body aches and like the barest headache ever. Buuut it was enough to keep home home from work so I wouldn’t infect other people. But last night I finally baked this quick bread.

Mmmm store brand pineapple.

Brown sugar.

Now…. CREAM.

I was putting away the egg carton when a wild animal appeared! Eisley was looking for the butter, I think. I had to shoo her out of there before she knocked the eggs over!

Eggggggs. Then I had to alternately add flour and pineapple.

This recipe had 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 baking soda. I’m not up on my ratios, but that seemed a little strange but it didn’t hurt the bread at all.

I have no idea why I took this video but here it is.

I really like pineapple.

That’s some smooth looking batter.

Have another video.

And the surprise pièce de résistance, AN ENTIRE CUP OF PECANS.

There were so many nuts, people! It was nuts! Haha.

Ready to GO.

It’s starting to rise.

What, that’s not bread! While it was baking I made myself some soondubu jjigae, or Korean tofu soup.

The crown of the bread really kicked up!

While the bread cooled, I actually had an Zoom meeting, a graduate school open house. That’s right, your solo geographer is going to get MORE educated in geography! That should be an adventure. . . Anyway, after it was over I ran to my folks’ house so we could all try the bread together.

So many nuts! My parents both loved it! The pineapple was very understated, which was surprising. Pineapple has such a strong, almost acidic flavor (yay bromelain!) but this was super mellow. I’d say it’s more of a nut loaf than a pineapple loaf. It was really good! But I think my parents liked it more than me, and I think it’s because I’m not a huge nut person. I mean, I eat them regularly, but if given a choice between pineapple or nuts, I’ll choose pineapple every time. If I made this loaf for me in the future, I’d actually halve the nuts. I’d keep it just the way it is if I make it again for my parents.

Mmm nice.

Also, my friends, I found a cookbook by the same company that is ALL PIES. It actually has one of my favorite crust recipes. So in addition to blogging about bread, I’m absolutely going to blog about pies. Because pies are delicious and more content is always a plus.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I won’t make you wait as long for another post!

The (Pumpkin) Spice Must Flow

Catherine embraces Pumpkin Spice Season and makes bread.

It’s officially Pumpkin Spice season. At least according to Starbucks. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin pie. It’s the highlight of Thanksgiving and Christmas for me. My family’s bakery makes an excellent pumpkin pie, and in fact we sell them to local ice cream joints for concretes. I also really love pumpkin flavored baked goods, like muffins and coffee cake.

But I don’t really care too much about Pumpkin Spice Lattes. And the reason is very simple. I don’t like super sugary coffee. I think I had maybe 2 PSLs in the past 3 years (and that may be a generous estimate… yes two is a generous estimate). For my fall drinks, I love a good apple cider. I also love hot chocolate. But if I have an espresso drink, it’s going to be a plain latte or a cappuccino. The last time I had a caramel macchiato I nearly went into a sugar coma. If I do get a hot cappuccino drink at my local coffee shop, I get a traditional Italian Cappuccino, which is only like 5 oz.

But I digress. Like, really badly considering this post isn’t even about coffee. It’s about PUMPKIN BREAD!

I baked Pumpkin Bread today. And it’s a KEEPER. When I picked out the recipe from my book, I barely glanced at it and thought, right up until I made the yeast slurry, that it was a sweet quick bread. Then I actually looked at the ingredients and realized I was going to be kneading and rising some dough.

The aforementioned yeast slurry.

After realizing that this was going to take significantly longer than a quick bread, my lazy bones decided to scald the milk in the microwave instead of the stove. Work smarter, not harder. Or just be lazy, idk. Do what you like.

I forgot to take a photo of the butter before I melted it, not that it matters, and I also didn’t move my hand holding the newly opened can of pumpkin puree.

I bought an electric can opener a few years ago when I had very bad arthritis (long story involving a major medication that screwed me up pretty badly) and I swear it’s my favorite thing in my kitchen. Even above my new tea kettle and my French Press.

My cats AND my dogs really wanted at this pumpkin. Maybe I’ll make some cat and dog friendly treats with the rest of the can. As long as it’s plain pumpkin, it’s fine for both species.

Mixin’ all that together. nice and blurry.

I don’t sift my flour as much as I should, which is every time. So I did it this time, and also sifted the allspice, cinnamon, sugar (only 4 TBSP!), and salt with it.

All fluffy and waiting for the gluten to activate.

The past couple of times I made yeast breads I’ve been very nervous about adding too much flour. The very first recipe I made that was intended for the blog was a DISMAL failure because I added as much as recipe suggested, and the dough was too stiff and then I also didn’t knead it long enough either. So I have to redo that recipe so I can actually blog it. Anyway, I stopped just short of what I felt was enough flour, and my caution won out. The recipe wanted a “stiff” dough, and I was nervous considering my problems last time. I just made sure it was slightly sticky. I knew once the dough rose a lot of the stickiness would be gone (I guess eaten by the yeast).

My proof box trick with boiling water under the bowl. I forgot to cover the dough but… it’s fine. Nothing happened. Also peek my new gooseneck kettle. That thing is amazing.

The yeast was VERY excited.

Punch.

Then back in the improvised oven proofer for another double rise.

Punch with the other hand. I was very happy to punch twice.

I have brand new loaf pans that I forgot to use so you get these ol’ reliables.

I let them rise to this point, and then put them in a 400 degree oven for ten minutes. Then the recipe had me decrease the temp by 25 degrees and bake for another thirty minutes. I’m not entirely sure why and I forgot to ask my dad, but whatever the reason, it worked nicely.

They’re slouching.

My house smelled amazing by the way.

Lookit that crumb structure.

Bliss. It wasn’t very sweet. But it’s not savory either. It has a very delicate pumpkin and spice flavor. I decided it would be good with cinnamon butter, but I was too lazy to make some up so that might have to wait til tomorrow. I took it over to my folks for them to try and they both LOVED it. They had a slice slathered with some honey (not a lot, just enough to set off the flavors) and they kept some for tomorrow.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite recipe I’ve made so far. I still have over forty recipes left to bake in this cookbook, but this one is 100% going to be on my baking rotation in the future. It’s a tremendous breakfast toast. And I may or may not experiment with PB&J if I get wild enough.

The pumpkin spice must flow… into my bread and my belly!

Spicy-not-so-spicy

I bake “spicy” blueberry muffins that are short on the spice but long on tastiness.

Hello! It’s been awhile! I meant to post forever ago but I got VERY distracted by work, training for the half marathon, family stuff, vacation planning, etc. So this blog kind of got pushed to the side. But I have a free evening, so I thought I’d write about my baking adventure from Monday. It’s, again, from the breads recipe book. Only this time I chose a quick bread!

I’ve been on a wild blueberry kick. I have them in my lunch most every day. My dogs love blueberries almost as much as they love carrot. I made blueberry Jam. This is the Summer of Blueberry.

No, not that Blueberry, but that’d be really rad.

No, Blueberry Muffins! The book calls them spicy blueberry muffins, but the spice part was. . . a little lackluster. But fear not, that doesn’t mean these weren’t delicious!

Flour.

Baking Powder. And a recipe for cornbread stuffing, slightly blurry.

Sugar, but only 1/3 of a cup. These were not sweet, and I liked it a lot.

Salt.

And the spice, cinnamon! Not very much. Next time I’d add more and maybe add some ginger to really spice things up.

Blueberriesssss!! Yes, mixed right into the dry ingredients. I got them all nice and coated too.

I might have forgotten to melt the butter and bring the other wet ingredients to room temp, so, it kind of broke the emulsion, as you’ll see.

The cold milk shocked the butter.

I also forgot to beat the eggs before adding them, but eh, it didn’t matter too much in this recipe.

I tried to make a well in the dry ingredients to pour in the wet, but the chunky wet didn’t behave. Again, didn’t matter too much for this recipe.

Mm, muffin batter. It was actually a bit drier than I expected. You’re not supposed to mix this a lot, just until it’s combined.

Some of these seemed to lack blueberries, so I pressed some on top of the batter, and it was a great decision.

The recipe also calls for simple cinnamon-sugar. I had a lot leftover so I saved it for buttered toast or even coffee if I’m feelin’ fancy (and I already have vanilla sugar from when I had a vanilla bean pod leftover from another cooking escapade!).

Mmm cinnamon.

I might need to clean my oven.

I slightly overbaked them, but they were still super tasty.

They popped right out of the muffin pan because I sprayed the heck out of it.

Nothing’s better than an oven fresh muffin, except an oven fresh muffin with butter (which my mom had, not me).

I made these Tuesday, and I have one left. I gave three to my mom, and my dog STOLE one from off the stovetop! Straight up lifted his head and STOLE it, the dirty dog! I knew feeding him blueberries was going to backfire. Actually if you scroll up to the photo of them on the wire rack on the stove, you’ll see there’s only 11… BECAUSE ANUBIS STOLE ONE and Appa managed to eat half of it as well. She’s a scrappy little dog.

I definitely enjoyed these. Would I make them again? Maybe, if I added more cinnamon and some ginger, I think they could be “proper” spicy blueberry muffins. As it is, they tasted like regular blueberry muffins. But a good recipe nonetheless, and not as sugary as some other recipes.

I have no idea what I’m going to bake next, but I’m sure it’ll be just as much fun.

I bought this mug the same day, and it is me 100%. It’s the anxiety disorder.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Drinkin’ Whiskey and Rye

It’s rye bread day!

Okay so not really. I don’t drink very much, though I do like a good whiskey every now and then. But I did bake rye bread!

I haven’t posted in awhile because, well, I got overwhelmed with work and stuff and I started running again so I have even less time, but it’s my day off so I cleaned my stove and part of my counter and baked bread. I also ran three miles but that’s beside the point.

Last week, I did actually bake zucchini bread from my recipe book but COMPLETELY forgot to take photos of the process. It was delicious enough that I’m going to make it again, so I can document it. I also have some travel plans next week so I hope to update the blog with those photos and adventures.

Some of the ingredients. . . So true story, I forgot to by rye flour and didn’t want to buy a whole bag, so my dad brought me some from the bakery, along with caraway seeds you can see in the little bag. I need to buy a jar of yeast but I keep forgetting to grab it at the grocery store.

For this bread, I scalded milk (in the microwave because I am lazy and the burners were still drying off from scrubbing the stove), and added butter, salt, and some brown sugar. I didn’t use all rye flower, I also mixed in some all purpose white flour in so it wasn’t super dense (just a little dense) when it was baked. I slowly added in the flour a cup at a time.

It created a sticky dough, which is common for rye. I actually wasn’t a rye bread eater for most of my life. Like many kids, I’m sure, it had too strange a taste for someone accustomed to white bread and wheat bread. Now, I like it a lot. My palate has changed a lot over the years, and it’s more broad. Which is super helpful when I go to new countries and try new food.

No kneading required for this dough! I put it in the oven to double. Again, with the pan of boiling water to keep things warm and humid.

Punching, or pushing, the dough down will forever be my favorite part of baking bread. That and the smell of yeast.

This bread was too sticky to really handle, but I managed to “pour” it into a baking dish. I inherited my grandma’s old pyrex ovenware dishes, so I was pleased to find the exact size I needed in the cupboard. I don’t use this dish as much because it’s more flat on the bottom. I mostly use it for jello actually. But it was perfect to bake this bread in!

It looks super close to the edge but the bottom was fully on the counter so don’t worry! I tried to form the dough to stretch the skin a bit. It’s hard to explain without showing you a video, but it’s a little trick I learned in culinary school to make the bread look nice as it bakes instead of having weird lumps. It wasn’t super even because of how sticky the dough was, but it looks rustic. That’s it, rustic.

I sprinkled caraway seeds on top, but realized after it baked that they didn’t stick to the bread in spite of the sticky dough. My dad reminded me of egg wash, and I completely forgot to really do it (though I did add some after the fact so SOME seeds stuck!). Also pictured: my really, really delicious expensive coffee.

Oven Ready! My stove looks so much more photogenic now that it’s clean, but you can’t really tell either way!

Now that is a handsome loaf.

And it’s pretty good too! Note all the caraway seeds under the rack! Oh well, I’ll remember next time. I’ll definitely make this loaf again. I may try and see if I can put it in a square pan for more even sandwiches for my lunch box. But I’ll definitely be packing my lunches with this bread! It’s not very strong a rye flavor, probably because it has a 2:3 ratio with AP flour respectively. So it’s perfect for me, though I’m slowly loving stronger and stronger rye flavor.

I’m currently working on a ginger bug, so I hope I can make ginger beer style soda this coming week. I didn’t take any pictures of the process because I kept failing at it, which is a story in and of itself. It may still fail, but it’s holding on for now so who knows. It smells good anyway!

Maybe I’ll do a coffee post soon! I have been drinking so much coffee lately, at least 2-3 cups a day. Maybe it’s not ideal but I did work up to it. But anyway, I have 4 or so different ways I like making it and it might be fun to talk about. Til next time, my friends!

Apple Bread? Not Quite.

More bread baking fun.

After another week of giving tours and being hot, I decided to bake some bread yesterday. I was too tired to write the blog post then, so I’m writing it now. I’m actually going to the zoo later this morning so I’ll probably make a post about that as well.

My bread today is Apple Yeast Bread! You put applesauce in the dough. I had a feeling as I was baking it that it wouldn’t be very sweet, and I was right. I was texting my mom during the process, and I made the comment that it was probably added more as a food for the yeast, along with the honey. Yeast needs sugar in order to grow, multiply, and release CO2, which is why bread dough rises. This is actually the concept behind carbonation in fermented drinks as well, such as beer and Champagne, kombucha, and traditional ginger beer. You keep those bottles closed as the yeasts eat up the sugar and expel CO2 and you get a nice bubbly drink! Now, honey has some problems when it comes to yeast fermentation, but that’s mostly if you use processed honey. I usually buy raw honey so even though it has antiseptic properties, it won’t be a problem for this bread.

I am actually trying to grow my own ginger bug but I’ve failed 3 times. Crossing my fingers for number 4!

Anywayyyyy, my bread recipe booklet is marketed as vintage, pioneer recipes. It makes sense that something that may be more accessible to homesteading women, like apples and applesauce, would be used if they weren’t able to get cane or molasses sugar. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie Books and how far that the Ingalls would have to go to a store before they settled closer to towns.

So without further ado, my bread!

Gotta get that yeast slurry going. It always looks so strange but it’s the science never fails to interest me!

Lotsa salt.

I buy raw honey mostly because I like the unprocessed taste better, but I heard that sometimes processed honey can mess with the health benefits. My usage of honey doesn’t really cross over with that, but eh, I figured I’d throw that out there.

SURPRISE INGREDIENT!
Ladies and gents, this recipe called for shortening. I don’t like Crisco if I can help it, and, well, since these are pioneer recipes, I bought LARD. Yes, lard! It has a horrible rap, and you can thank Crisco for that. My family’s bakery does use vegetable shortening in some of our recipes, but man you can’t beat lard. If you’re not a vegetarian, that is. Anyway, I was excited to find they sell lard at Walmart now. I don’t know if they sell it at the regular grocery store I go to but I should check. Lard is actually better for you than vegetable shortening. Again, this is also if you’re not a vegetarian. I have veg friends and I’d never serve them something with lard in it. It’s not quite the same, but I have a huge aversion towards mushrooms and I’d lose it if someone fed me them to be sneaky and mess with me. It’s just cruel.

Powdered milk, hot water, and mix it all together!

Finally I added the yeast slurry. Then it was time to add the flour!

I had some troubles.

I had to roll up my metaphorical shirtsleeves and do the last cup and a half of flour by hand.

Can you imagine Ma Ingalls with a KitchenAid? She would have been all over that business. I remember reading a post awhile back about all these homesteading methods everyone (yes, everyone), should know including butchering your own hogs and cooking on an open fire. And while the thought behind it was you need to know these things in case the world goes to hell and we have to, IDK, become pioneers and go west and live in a one room log cabin, all I could think about was the Little House books and how much time they took to just survive. While I do know how to cook in a dutch oven and I love camping, you can’t take my KitchenAid from me. Also I’m not going to butcher a hog, not at ALL sorry. I can’t even put a worm on a hook when I go fishing.

I put it in my improvised oven proof box for an hour and it POOFED. Also peek at my dinner recipe up there.

PUNCH. My favorite part.

Back in the proofbox.

I was surprised at the 3 rises this bread has, and there was a slight problem with it later, but I’ll explain when I get there.

Also I didn’t really weight the halves so they were a bit different sizes. OH WELL.

As you can see, not only was one larger, I think it genuinely had more oven spring. The loaf on the right was denser. I’m not entirely sure how that happened since they were proofed exactly the same, but the loaf ban on the left is also a bit of a different shape and size and I think that was part of it.

My stove is still greasy from cooking dinner, sorry.
I was a bit freaked out when I pulled these, because the crust was rock hard. I even texted my mom upset. All I had to do was wait, though, because they softened as the bread cooled.

It has a dense crumb structure, but it still tastes just fine. The other loaf is even better. I think the denseness might have been contributed to the third rise. If you let a dough rise too much, the yeast won’t have any more sugars. So it stops rising because it stops producing CO2. I think that’s what happened with the smaller loaf. Regardless, the flavor is still good, it’s just a bit denser than a yeast bread probably should be. I’d like to experiment with it rising only twice, but I don’t want to use up that much flour in the future.

It doesn’t have hardly any sweetness, and it’s just a regular white bread. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the recipe, but in the process of baking it I was sure it would end up more like this and I was right. It makes pretty good toast. I’m not sure if I’d make it again mostly because it’s just a plain white bread. Regardless, I enjoyed the process!

As for my next bread recipe, I don’t know. Maybe one of the quick breads? They also have fried breads that I’m eager to try. You’ll find out soon enough I suppose! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day.

The Simple Joy of Baking Bread

Enjoying the smell of baking bread. . .

I got back from Moab last night.

Correction: I got back from Moab at 1 A.M. this morning, but I don’t like to split hairs (That is a total lie). I slept in late (for me), got my nephew and I lunch, sent nephew off back home to his parents and his pup, and picked up my own pup. I meant to grab a lot more photos of my desert adventures but, um, I didn’t. Though I did see Kevin Costner (through a spotting scope) filming one of the Horizon Sequels while camping on the river, so you know I had a good time.

I decided that this afternoon, I’d attack a bread recipe from the book I mentioned in my first post. This isn’t actually the first recipe I attempted. The first one I tried about a week before I left on my vacation and it was a dismal failure. I think it was a kneading issue. I tried Molasses Wheat Bread and it was. . . not good. So this time I decided to do a simpler recipe and it was great!

So I present: Sally Lunn Yeast Bread!

I had no idea who Sally Lunn was, though the book said she was an Englishwoman who sold her baked goods on the streets and her recipes came to America. With this rather sparse biography, I decided to look her up. Apparently, she might not have even existed. Regardless, the bread lives on, and it’s delicious!

First, I had to dissolve yeast.

Then I had to make an iced latte.

I meant to get a photo of all the ingredients but I forgot I had planned to do this and just measured them as I added them to the mixer. But butter is important.

Add a bit of sugar and cream together.

A coupla eggs.

My sister has chickens, and we got fresh eggs every day in Moab (or could have, I only ate eggs twice while I was there because I usually only wanted coffee in the mornings).

Then I added flour and milk in alternating batches as I mixed them together, ending off with the dissolved yeast.

I beat it all until the batter/dough was smooth and sticky.

Mmm sticky and springy

So then I left it in a slightly warm oven to rise for two hours. Halfway through, I actually added boiling water to a pan underneath to transform the oven into a rudimentary proof box. I learned this trick in culinary school, actually, and it works like a charm.

Soft and still sticky!

“Punching” it down with a polycarbonate spoon.

The recipe calls for a tube pan, which I don’t actually own. I found a bundt pan and used that instead. I had to “pour” the batter into the pan, though it was too sticky to actually do that, but it worked.

Ready for the second rise!

Back into a warm oven with a bit of water in pan, this time only for an hour.

It rose like a champ. I poked it at this stage and was delighted at how airy it felt. It’s hard to describe. But I could tell it wasn’t dense (which was hardly a surprise, considering it rose to the top of the pan!).

I put it into an oven and baked away for around 40 minutes. It was right on the money. Also, it was soooooo nice smelling this bread bake. It’s one of my favorite smells in the world, and I blame that fully on the fact that I spent so much of my childhood in my family’s bakery.

Pardon my messy stove.

Beautiful brown crust.

I texted a photo to my dad and he wanted to try it. My mom is out of town, but it should still be good by the time she gets back. Dad and I tried it with butter and it was so good! What really warmed my heart was when he said it looks like his grandma’s bread. He also said it tasted like hers too. I love the idea of connecting to the past through something as simple as baking bread. It’s part of why I’m blogging this process. I love making food and sharing it!

Look at that crumb structure!

When I brought it back home I remembered that I bought some prickly pear jelly in Moab. I decided to try it on the bread and it was delicious. Prickly Pear is hard to describe. It’s sweet and a bit tart. It was the perfect counterpoint to this egg yeast bread.

So I’d say this recipe is a success! I have to go back to eating healthy tomorrow, as I indulged in junk food WAY too much on my trip. However, I will definitely be eating a slice or two of this bread until it’s gone!