'tism by Bap
I've been making bread a lot lately, so much so that I've started to think of my rest periods between exercises at the gym as an autolyse. In particular, I've been making baguettes.
There's something both sophisticated yet informal about a small baguette. It's a social rung above a mere dinner bun, but it doesn't demand the social niceties of a sliced loaf bread. Makes a meal feel more civilized without feeling uncomfortably proper.
So I finally succumbed to the temptation of buying a perforated triple baguette pan.
Fortunately, the baptismal batch went especially well - luckily so, since it was experimental. Measurements are by weight thanks to my new $8 kitchen scale which works solely in Imperial, and are approximate thanks to my poor memory:
3 oz whole wheat flour
6 oz cup bread flour
4 oz cake flour
3 oz flax meal (flax seeds pulsed in the coffee maker)
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt
13 fl oz water
1 tbsp brown sugar
Dough will be slightly sticky so oil your hands to knead it. And yadda yadda yadda, you know the general method for making baguette.* In the end, it goes into a 450F[-ish] oven for about 25-30 minutes.
I usually make six small loaves; but I think I will try this intriguing layout next...
good eggs go to heaven
Made angelfood cake for the first time... was shocked & delighted that it turned out to be excellent (that whole egg white/soft peak/folding thing, very intimidating).
Will dare try its cousin the meringue/Pavlova next... perhaps will be crazy enough to layer meringue and angelfood together, and call it Death by Albumen. Or The White Death. Or A Pale Horse... if only I could figure out what to do with all those yolks.
[Addendum. Now that I've had the chance to sleep on it... In honour of its being low in cholesterol, and its being fishbelly white, I shall call it: Death Takes a Holiday. Oh, and my scale does work in metric... so heaven only knows why it's so cheap, it'll probably throw a spring at the most inconvenient moment...]
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* Follow my mother's fine example: put a trivet in the bottom of a big pot, fill the pot with very hot water almost up to the top of the trivet, and sit the covered bowl of dough on the trivet in the pot to proof.
Posted by edgar at May 9, 2006 05:38 PM