My favorite bread making tools.....

 

I have learned that the tools we use are essential in the outcome and the pleasure and ease of making bread and other items. I had read somewhere that gathering all of the tools and supplies at the beginning of a project makes the process smoother. It has taken me all these decades and now I am a firm believer. It is much like a sous chef who assembles, cuts and chops ingredients for the chef. I now use this concept for most of my cooking, cleaning and sewing projects. 

The items above I use for making Peter Reinharts transitional whole wheat bread. A family favorite for everything from a late night peanut butter toast snack to a delicious turkey sandwich for lunch. I really like the cambro square containers for letting the dough rise.  I use the flour sack towels for wrapping the bread after baking and while cooling. The turkey roasting bags are perfect for covering Kitchen Aid mixing bowls. As long as I have all the ingredients and my tools assembled, I am ready to go and it takes no time at all. Usually to mix both the biga and soaker is about 15-20 minutes.  Then after it sits till the next day, the additional items are all combined and voila....bread. 

I just love that linen towel with the purple stripes....splurge

Enjoy the weekend!

Thoughts on making bread......

Bread for all Seasons by Beth Hensperger

egg white wash sprinkled with sugar in the raw

find the wheat berries......

Making bread, the yeast, kneading, mixing and the rhythm eluded me for decades. I tried again, now in my 4th decade, and have had success. Even my family asks me to make bread, which is the greatest compliment. But here's the thing, I get bored making the same bread over and over, so I go looking for other recipes with different flavors to try.

I began my renewed  interest (and determination) in baking bread with Cooks Illustrated Anadama bread and are now mostly baking from Peter Reinhart and Beth Hensperger. Yesterday I began a recipe from Ms Hensperger book, Blueberry Cardamon Bread, with dried blueberries (I soaked mine in orange juice) and wheat berries ( soaked in water, cooked in water and cooled).

I bake it, cooled per instructions and sliced for every one to try. The wheat berries hardened up...How did that happen? So it is like eating bread with small popcorn kernels. My kids like it because they like biting on nannies. The bread is really tasty, moist and I would make it again without the wheat berries. Which brings me to these words found on Pinterest

My bread is not perfect but it is a beautiful thing!

I enjoy the process, love the result and it satisfies me that I can provide for my family. Enjoy your day and I hope that I have encouraged someone to try something new. 

Wave of whimsy

Saturday October 2nd 2010

So one of the many things I like to do/make is bread. Yeast had befuddled me and the resulting breads I made were better door stops than edible, fluffy, tasty loaves. A friend started a bread making class and I thought after all these years I was unteachable. But now I have had many successes. I began, after understanding some basic bread guidelines taught in the classes, using the recipes in Cooks Illustrated. Our family favorite is the Anadama Bread. Then I ventured to The King Arthur Bread Book. And my most recent favorites are both The Bread Bible by Beth Hensberger and The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. For french toast or a yummy white bread, Ms Beranbaum's challah is our 'go to' recipe. While in a used book store with my daughters, I happened upon A Bread for all Seasons by Beth Hensberger. It is an interesting way to present bread recipes. It gives me something to look forward to each season.

A couple of things that I do every time I make bread is I leave a little flour out to produce a more moist loaf of bread and I always wrap the baked loaves in cotton toweling while they cool. This allows for the heat to escape while not drying out the loaf. My husband gave me a Shun serrated knife for Christmas...glides right through a cooled loaf of bread!

Orange Raisin Bagel bread from Beth Hensberger's A Bread For all Seasons July

White potato Oatmeal Bread, September, also from the same book. I also wanted to make the Italian Whole-Wheat Walnut-Raisin bread, also in the section for September, but I think I will just have to move along.

For October I will have to try either the Fresh Apple-Walnut Bread or the Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread. My family is sometimes frustrated that I don't make more sandwich breads but I love to make different kinds...it keeps me interested in the process.

So today we are continuing sewing our pillowcases for Con-Kerr Cancer Pillowcase challenge. I also need to spend some time on the T-shirt quilt. I purchased the backing yesterday. A blue minky fabric. I am going to catch up on all my projects....wishful thinking perhaps.

PS. I am new to blogging and the formating is driving me crazy.  As I am typing and editing it looks one way then when I go to preview it looks somewhat different. So many apologies. I am in the process of trying to figure it out....

Happy October

Ileen

Lists and things

Wednesday September 15th, 2010

So I wanted to share my list of 12 quilts and 12 dresses I would like to complete. But first I would like to amend my 'Plan'...I thought, perhaps, I would like to have this all done in one year. Then I started thinking if I would enjoy the time spent on each project or look at them  as just another task in the long list of chores I have made for myself. With that said, I do not have a time limit, though I would like to complete a dress and a quilt each month. I think it is a bit more reasonable...for me at least.

I also finished reading  "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman and I discovered that my primary 'love language' is probably Quality Time, although I seem to need a little of each of the 5. So whether the 'quality time' be spent with others or by myself, I really want to enjoy and appreciate all the projects.

There are times when I get off on tangents...mostly from browsing around the internet and I see something I just have to make. So I will take the time to post those projects too.


The Quilts

1. Pinwheel Dolly Quilt (completed 8/8/10)
2. T-shirt Quilt
3. Windows & Frames (made from mens business shirts.Kate Dixon)
4. Poodle Hugs Quilt (Katy Jones)
5. Honu Quilt (Lisa Boyer)
6. Daisey Chain (Brioni Greenberg)
7. Mod Square
8. Bedtime Story (Aneela Hoey)
9. Family Tree Appliqué (Alicia Paulson)
10. Silhouette Wall Quilt (Alicia Paulson)
11. Little Houses (Ingrid Press)
12. Summer Quilt
13. and something using patchwork hexagons

The Dresses

1. Ice Cream Social dress (Oliver & S completed 8/21/10)
2. Yoga Skirt (Patty Young completed 8/10 & 9/14/10)
3. Antoinne (Citronille)
4. Wrap Dress (for my daughter)
5. Shirt Dress (Heather Ross Weekend Sewing)
6. Coffee Date Dress (The Selfish Seamstress)
7. Men's Shirt Dress (re-purposing a mens shirt)
8. Vintage dress for my other daughter
9. Megan peasant Dress (Sis Boom)

Three more to go....

Tangent #1

Today I did get a few things done, walking around the park, grocery shopping, going to the bank, filing and cleaning. I started a batch of bread, White Oatmeal-Potato Bread by Beth Hensperger from her book A Bread for all Seasons. I'll let you know how it turned out. But no sewing, perhaps another day...

Happy Dough

 Ileen