My Bread Odyssey and Tribute to Mom

I love making bread. I've been making all our family's bread since back in the early 1970s, living in Guatemala. The only bread recipe I had at that time was my Mom's (and before her, Grandma's) bread that she made for Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas, and sometimes, if we were lucky, other times as well. It was something I watched her make all through my young life, before marrying and moving to Guatemala. I don't believe she knew any other recipe for bread, but it was so exceptionally good that it made no difference. I adopted it as our daily bread, and we just never get tired of it - it's just that good. An enriched dough, with milk, butter, eggs and sugar, it rises beautifully, makes fabulous sandwiches, toast or French Toast.

My Kitchen Aid Mixer Bread

The late '80s and '90s

When we moved back to the States, I continued making Mom's bread, and over the years, made small changes; things that didn't change the great taste or texture. I used powdered milk, instead of scalding 3 cups of milk and waiting for it to cool. I used honey instead of sugar. I used whole eggs instead of just the yolks. And as bread flour became available, started using that. Then my new husband bought me a bread machine from DAK. I managed to halve Mom's recipe to use in the machine, but never liked how it baked in there, so after the machine's kneading and proofing, I'd form it and bake in the oven. Despite all that, the poor bread machine was so overworked that it died after 2 years! DAK's machine came with a little recipe booklet, and I adopted and adapted some of those recipes, changing them to suit and also baking in the oven. My Double Chocolate Bread and Herbed Onion Bread are results of my tinkering. And eventually, the gift of a Kitchen Aid Mixer had me revamping Mom's bread to using the mixer.

Herbed Onion Loaf

Then somewhere along the way, I found a book with some interesting bread recipes, and started trying some of them out. There were lots of them with additions like dried fruits, nuts, other flavorings and such. While they were delicious, most times the bread took forever to rise and often resulted in under baked loaves, despite following the recipes assiduously. I didn't know what was the problem.

The 2000s

Then in early 2014, my sister-in-law, Curator of Education at the Dacotah Prairie Museum in Aberdeen, SD, brought me a stack of cookbooks someone had donated to the museum. I started out with one of them and haven't looked back: The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart. I have come a very long way in my knowledge and understanding of bread, dough and how they work since then. My entire focus has shifted. Over the years, I have become so enamored with the different whole grain breads, finding out about long, slow rising periods and resulting enhanced flavor. I love anything that helps with eating more naturally, and using whole grains in bread is certainly better, in that sense. I have never entirely converted my husband. He loves white bread. 

During the next phase, and Reinhart's book, "Bread Revolution," while visiting the local health food store searching for malted grains, I got chatting with the store manager and he told me about a bread he was experimenting with, using a Tangzhong starter, and even printed his recipe for me. Finding that it was a white bread, I opted to set the recipe aside and finally, forgot about it.

Poilane Style Miche, from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"

Since watching The Great British Baking Show/Bake Off, I have also learned a lot about bread making from Paul Hollywood's comments on the show, and also discovered that kneading "for 10 to 12 minutes" is not necessarily enough to got the dough to pass the "windowpane" test. For me, kneading a whole grained loaf requires up to 20 minutes of kneading time to pass the test. I discovered that this was truly the biggest difference to getting my breads to rise properly.

This past year, though I had gotten my husband to eat my whole grain breads, he has been suffering tooth problems and wasn't able to chew well. As thing deteriorated, and with his fear of COVID while going to a dentist, it got to a point where he truly couldn't chew. My hearty whole grain breads were inedible for him. I went back to a modified version of my Mom's bread, adding just a little whole wheat, slightly less butter and sugar. It worked.

2021 - Full Circle

My husband and I were watching Paul Hollywood's program, City Bakes, and we came to where he spends some time in Japan. After lamenting that Japan really isn't known for bread, he comes across some bakeries, and discovers Japan's Shokupan, or Milk Loaf. Hearing Paul describe the method of making this bread, I exclaimed, "That's the kind of bread that guy in the health food store in Aberdeen gave me the recipe for!"

The whole thing about this type of bread is the "starter," for want of a better word. It is not a sourdough, but it is a pre-mix that helps the dough retain moisture and gives this bread a pillowy soft texture. I decided to try it out, mainly for my husband (who had the offending teeth pulled and is still needing soft food). I went online and searched. Surprisingly, while there were quite a few recipes for Japanese Milk Bread, not many of them actually used the pre-starter, opting to omit that step. This made me wonder why one would even call it by that name? 

Apparently there are two methods to this bread's starter. According to Chopstick Chronicles, The Tangzhong method uses a starter that is 5 parts liquid to one part flour. This is cooked to 150 degrees F, cooled and the dough is made and baked as usual. The Yudaine method, uses a 1:1 ratio of flour to water, simply pouring boiling water over the flour and mixing to a dough-like consistency and refrigerating overnight. The bread is made the following day (though she does say it is possibly to make the bread after only a couple of hours of resting the starter.

Yudaine Shokupan from Chopstick Chronicles

I actually made this recipe from Chopstick Chronicles as my second attempt (since it called for an overnight rest for the starter and I wanted one to make right away!) and it also came out beautifully, though I also had to add a little more water (10 grams) to the starter (to counteract this Arizona dry climate). The actual recipe, for just one loaf, is a far smaller recipe, but comes out equally well.

I wanted to make a batch right away, so I opted first to try a recipe by Julia Moskin in the Cooking section of the New York Times. She makes the Tangzhong starter, but then divides the starter in half, using only one half of it, leaving the rest for another loaf. I opted to just double the bread recipe and use all the starter. She also uses a fair amount of sugar and yeast, so I lowered those amounts. Adjustments were needed in her recipe: the dough is described as very wet and too difficult to be kneaded by hand. Mine came out so stiff there was no way it was going to be a soft bread. I added a full 1/2 cup more of both water and milk to proceed; this could be that I live in Arizona - most recipes require more liquid. This is what I did:

Tangzhong Milk Bread

Tangzhong Milk Bread

Makes 2 loaves

STARTER:
120 grams water: 1/2 cup
120 grams milk: 1/2 cup
45 grams bread flour: about 1/3 cup

In a small saucepan, whisk these ingredients until smooth, then over medium heat, cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly and is still pourable. Pour the starter into a bowl and place cling film directly onto the surface to prevent it forming a skin as it cools. Cool to room temperature before proceeding. 

CAVEAT: If the mixture is too stiff, add in a second 120 grams of liquid.

For the DOUGH:
1 large egg
650 grams bread flour (about 5 cups)
30 grams granulated sugar (about 3 tablespoons
10 grams instant / quick-rise yeast (1 tablespoon)
8 grams salt (about 1 teaspoon)
60 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature, soft (4 tablespoons)
-------
(1/2 cup milk - if the dough is too stiff)

Dough like stiff batter

Pour the starter mixture into the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer and add in the remaining ingredients, except the last half cup of milk. Start the mixer on lowest speed until mixture is combined, stopping to scrape down if needed. At this point the dough should be quite loose. If it is not, add in the half cup of extra milk and again mix slowly until combined. Now, raise the mixer speed to 4 or 5 and mix for 20 minutes. The very loose dough should instead be nearly a stiff batter (see photo). Scrape the dough into a greased bowl, then lightly oil the top. Cover well and set aside to rise until doubled, 40 to 60 minutes.

Grease two loaf pans, approximately 9 x 5 inches. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and punch down well. The dough will be very springy and yet easy to handle. Divide into two equal pieces, by weight. Cover them well and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes. This helps to relax the dough, slightly.

Further divide one piece of the dough into two equal pieces, by weight. Roll out one piece into a rough rectangle about 6 x 10 inches. With the shorter edge towards you, fold in each side to the center, slightly overlapping. Start rolling up the dough tightly, keeping edges neat as possible. Pinch the last edge to seal and set into one end of one of the greased loaf pans, seam side down.

Repeat with the other half of this section of the dough and set into the opposite end of the same loaf pan, seam side down. 

Do the same thing with the other half of the dough, dividing into two equal pieces, rolling out, tucking in sides, rolling and setting into each end of the second loaf pan. Lightly oil the tops of the dough, then cover with cling film and set aside to rise. The dough will be ready to bake once it reaches the top of the pans, about 45 minutes. If desired, and for a very deep colored and shiny top, brush the tops of the loaves with an egg wash made of 1 yolk and 1 tablespoon water.

Have oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves for about 30 to 40 minutes. If you have an instant-read thermometer, internal temperature should be between 95 to 105 degrees F. Turn out and allow to cool completely before slicing. Bread will be exceedingly soft. Unless you have a very sharp bread knife, do not try to cut the bread on the same day. With a good, sharp bread knife, use a back and forth sawing motion, very gently, with no pressure, to cut without crushing the bread.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Making Bread is So Satisfying

I was testing bread recipes a couple of weeks ago, wanting to have some breads on hand over the holidays. One of these was the result of an accident. I made the wrong kind of starter for a recipe I intended to make. Then I was stuck with the starter and wondering what to do, and a though occurred, so I pursued this thought and it came out lovely and delicious!

Italian Style Bread as loaves

The accidental starter was a Poolish Starter, which is rather thin and runny in comparison to some others like Biga or Pâte Fermentée, both of which are more like a bread dough themselves. A Poolish is like some sourdough starters in consistency, which starts out like thick pancake batter and after fermentation turns out in long sticky strands. It generally uses an almost equal amount by weight of flour and water, with a little yeast to get the process going. The difference between a Sourdough starter and a Poolish is that the Sourdough is truly fermented and over time becomes soured. How sour it stays will depend on how much flour and water is added to refresh the starter. The Poolish on the other hand, is only just allowed to rise once, refrigerated, then used within 3 days. Its souring effect is mostly nil, but the pre-fermentation and then the cold storage unlocks a lot of flavors that would not be available to the bread if just made in a one day process.

Okay, so that is an explanation of what a Poolish does. Here is the recipe for a Poolish, enough for the Italian Style Bread recipe, below:

Poolish Starter

Makes about 23 ounces 

Make at least one day ahead

11.25 ounces unbleached bread flour
12 ounces water, room temperature
¼ teaspoon instant / rapid rise yeast

Stir the three ingredients together until all the flour is moistened. Cover the bowl with plastic film and set aside at room temperature until it is bubbly and about doubled, about 3 or 4 hours. Refrigerate the Poolish overnight or for up to three days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Italian Style Bread as Rolls

To make the Italian style bread out of this Poolish simply requires bringing the Poolish to room temperature on the day of making the bread, and then adding in the ingredients to make the final dough. Quite simple. Truly delicious. I have been mostly making whole grain breads for our general consumption, but some of our guests over the holidays do not care for the whole grain breads. From this bread recipe it is possible to get two long, freestanding loaves or 16 individual rolls of about 2.5 ounces each.

Italian Style Bread

Makes 2 long loaves or 16 rolls


All the Poolish starter
11.65 ounces / 330 grams / 2½ cups bread flour
0.20 ounces / 5 grams / 1½ teaspoons salt
0.15 ounces / 3 grams / 1 teaspoon instant yeast
0.5 ounces / 1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces <2 tablespoons / 3.5 ounces water

Windowpane Test

The day of making the bread, remove the Poolish from the refrigerator at least an hour ahead, or more, to take off the chill. Pour all the Poolish into a large bowl, then add in the flour, then add the salt to one side and the yeast to the other side. Pour in the olive oil and begin stirring, adding in the water to bring together. Use a wooden spoon at first, switching to hands once it becomes too difficult to stir. It may help to moisten hands while working with the dough. Once the mixture begins to come together in one mass, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading for about 12 minutes, or until the dough passes the windowpane test as shown here. Taking a small piece of dough, stretch it gently until light can be seen through the thinned dough, without breaking or tearing. If it tears easily, knead some more, until this is achieved.

Oil a clean bowl and set the kneaded bread into the bowl, turning over once to leave both sides of the dough greased. Cover with plastic film and set aside to rise until just about doubled in size, about 2 hours, depending on ambient temperature. A finger lightly pressed into the risen dough should leave a small indent that still springs back - not completely, but mostly.

FOR LOAVES: Turn the risen dough out and lightly degas. If making two long loaves, divide the dough evenly into two pieces using a dough cutter. Flatten one half into a rectangle, then begin rolling up tightly, tucking either end in slightly as you roll. Once you reach the other edge, pinch the seam together, then set onto a large parchment lined baking sheet, on one side. Roll the second piece of dough and set at least 4 inches apart from the first loaf on the baking sheet. Mist with oil and cover with plastic film. Allow to rise again until almost doubled in size.

Have the oven preheated to 500 degrees. Have a heavy oven safe pan set on the broiler rack, and the other rack set so the bread is at about the center of the oven. Have 1 cup of hot water ready. When bread is ready to bake, slash the loaves twice lengthwise. Set the pan on the lower rack in the oven and pour the cup of hot water in the pan on the broiler rack. Immediately lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The bread should be nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Internal temperature should be at least 200 degrees F.

Italian Style Bread in Knots

FOR ROLLS: Degas the dough slightly, then begin measuring out pieces of dough of about 2.5 ounces apiece, or if gauging by eye, cut into 16 equal pieces. Form into taught balls for round rolls or form into taught torpedo shapes, setting the rolls onto a large, greased baking sheet or two as needed (or line the sheets with parchment). I formed my rolls into "knots."

To make "knots," roll each piece of dough into a long, 10 or 11-inch length rope. Begin to tie a regular knot by looping the ends round each other. There should be room in the center of the loop created. Take the two ends and loop each around the circle once more, so one end sticks out the bottom and one loop sticks out of the top. Set each finished knot onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between rolls. Allow the rolls to rise until nearly doubled.

Have the oven heated to 375 degrees with a rack towards the center of the oven. If desired use an egg wash to make the surfaced shiny. Combine one egg with a tablespoon of water and whisk briefly to combine. Using a pastry brush, carefully paint the tops of the rolls with the egg wash, being careful the wash does not run underneath the roll or it will glue itself to the pan.

Bake the rolls for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden and sounding hollow when tapped on the bottoms.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Finally on the Kombucha Wagon

In all my posts about lacto-fermentation so far, I have yet to mention Kombucha. I had heard of Kombucha (pronounced: com-BOO-cha) many years ago, but somehow it just never called my attention, and I have gone along all these many years blithly ignoring anything to do with it. I had never tasted it, never bought a bottle, never knew anyone brewing it and never had anyone offer me a SCOBY.

What is Kombucha?

Black Tea

Kombucha is a fermented beverage made using said SCOBY and sweet, brewed tea. It has to be tea. Real true tea. Flavored teas may run the risk of killing off the SCOBY if they have certain oils added (think Earl Grey tea), and herbal teas do not have the true tea that the SCOBY lives and feeds on. The yeasts need sugar to ferment, so real sugar is needed to brew Kombucha. Honey or other kinds of sugar or sugar substitutes will not suffice. Real tea (black, oolong, green, white) and real white sugar (preferably organic, dehydrated cane sugar) are all that is needed, plus the SCOBY, to get started. The tea can be plain teabags or loose tea, as desired. I happen to have a lot of varieties of loose tea.

SCOBY - a WHAT?

A SCOBY, an acronym for a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria & Yeasts is a very strange looking and feeling culture that grows on the surface of Kombucha. This is a kind of which came first scenario. One needs a SCOBY to brew Kombucha. Brewing Kombucha yields new SCOBYs. The SCOBY is similar to a vinegar "mother." They are not the same, and a vinegar mother would make some very off-tasting Kombucha. Once Kombucha is brewing, if it is left for too long, will get sour enough to use as a vinegar substitute in things like salad dressings, but do not use it for canning and preserving, as the pH is too variable.

So What does Kombucha Taste Like - and What if I Don't Like Tea? 

One reason I never got interested in Kombucha was that somewhere I read that it was made with a mushroom. I have nothing against mushrooms, and eat them often. But hearing about yet another health food fad, using a mushroom - well, I was unconvinced, and uninterested. 

I do love tea. Real tea, camellia sinensis. I love black teas, green teas. Oolong has never quite become a favorite, and I find white tea too mild. I like tea that really packs a whallop. I do not like sweet tea. But what if you don't like tea? Well, for starters, once the sweet tea is fermented, I feel it bears little resemblance to what the original flavor was. As the Kombucha is fermenting, it is also eating up the sugars in the process. Yes you may have a small alcohol content in the beverage and it does tend to become fizzy. I am also not a soda drinker, do not care for fizzy drinks, even champagne - though I will drink a beer on occasion, though not often. Kombucha will tend to get fizzy, more so the longer it ferments. 

I don't know who came up with the idea that a SCOBY is a mushroom. It is not.  There are a couple of sites (among millions, it seems) that seem to have more detailed information than others. One is Kombucha Kamp, and another is Food Renegade.

Two SCOBYs, courtesy of another informative site: Yemoos

As for what it tastes like, I cannot give a definitive answer. So far I have tasted two store-bought bottles. The first was one with fruit juice added. This requires a secondary ferment, I have found. It was very fizzy, tangy and quite delicious. Not terribly sweet, which was good. I had been having troubles keeping my blood glucose numbers in check, so I was concerned. So far, after two bottles over 4 days, I have had no rise in blood glucose levels, so - so far, so good. The second bottle I bought was GT's Enlightenment Kombucha, plain. It was also quite good, and this time I was more interested in what a plain Kombucha tasted like. Lightly sweet, very fizzy, but I cannot precisely put a finger on the actual flavor. For sure it does not taste like tea. 

The fact that my blood glucose is remaining stable after these drinks is good. For one thing, the two bottles had listed only 8 gm sugar per serving - a far cry from most sodas out there. The fact that this is a fermented beverage, with all that implies (lots of pro-biotics and health benefits), is what actually made me sit up and take note.

A Disclaimer on the Health Benefits

To date, as I have read in many articles, scathing or otherwise, there is no real evidence to suggest health benefits from drinking Kombucha. Kombucha can ferment down to very low (acidic) pH levels, at which point that is like saying vinegar will go bad and make you sick. This is my own common sense talking here. I have no scientific background or knowledge. Fermenting foods at home, one should always be aware of cleanliness, but anyone who cooks should also be aware of cleanliness. Again, this is simple common sense. Using dirty hands to put the SCOBY into your tea will probably be introducing some interesting bad bacteria. It is debatable that the SCOBY can eventually kill all of that off, before the brew is finished. Clean containers, clean utensils, clean towels and clean hands are always required. Common sense. 

Health "officials" make no claims that Kombucha has any kind of health benefits either. However, as I am fermenting so many other kinds of foods, I thought this could certainly be another source of some probiotic action. 

Anyone wanting to start brewing their own Kombucha should read carefully all the information out there, particularly form people who have successfully been brewing for years. I have spent countless hours online reading, reading, printing instructions, notes, memos, pictures and what I can get my hands on. Be well acquainted with the process, the whys and wherefores, make sure you have the proper utensils and only then venture into buying (or finding someone with lots of baby SCOBYs) your first SCOBY culture.  

Vessels for Brewing Kombucha

Type of jar to use

It is stressed everywhere I have read to use glass for fermenting Kombucha. From a small, one-quart batch in a mason jar to large 2-gallon beverage jars, they should be glass meant for food. Crystal will leach lead. Most metal vessels will leach metals into the brew. No matter how great the ceramic, it is still advised against using ceramic vessels as it is possible to leach lead from the glaze. So, glass it is. Plastic containers, unless they are specifically made for long-term food storage are advised against. Myself, I would not use a plastic container anyway. That said, I did buy a large jar yesterday at Target. It has a spigot, which is plastic. I pray this little bit will not be a problem. The reason I got this kind of jar is that I want to start a Continuous Brew, draining finished Kombucha from the spigot, and adding fresh sweet tea from the top.  

My First SCOBY

I ordered my first SCOBY and received it in the mail yesterday. It arrived in a sealed plastic pouch, inside a very sturdy small mailer envelope, inside another larger mailer envelope. Well protected. Inside the plastic pouch was the SCOBY and about a half cup or so of Kombucha. The SCOBY itself is generally a pancake shape, can be very thin, or grow to be very thick as it forms new SCOBYs.  It is usually a brownish yellowish, can be uniformly colored or blotchy. It may have raggedy bits hanging off of it, which are yeasts, a by product of the fermentation process. These come off easily, with clean hands. It kind of looks like a weird jellyfish. It feels somewhat like squid; pliable, smooth. 

I had my tea brewed, sweetened and cooling hours before it arrived. It is important that the SCOBY be added to tea that is not too hot - or even very far from the same temperature as itself. My tea was still a full 10 degrees warmer than the SCOBY when it arrived. I set them side by side to acclimate. I added the SCOBY to my tea late yesterday afternoon. Most places state to let it brew for about 7 days, in a warm dark place. Some say on top of the fridge - where it certainly is not dark, in my house. I covered the mouth of the jar with a tea towel, held in place with a rubber band to discourage insects. Then I used a large flour sack towel to cover the jar from light. I will taste it at around 6 days to see how the ferment is progressing.

And that is where things stand around my house! 



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Some Things I Have Been Making Lately

I have been quite busy lately; mostly with baking. When my sister-in-law, Sherri brought me all those cookbooks, mostly on breads, I sort of parked myself in one of them, "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: by Peter Reinhart. I have been so enchanted with the recipes and all the instruction, explanation, theory, chemistry, all the why's and wherefores of bread making. I wrote about this a bit in my blogs of May 1st, and May 2nd, and sporadically since then. 

Caraway Deli Onion Rye

I started out making a "seed starter", meaning I mixed flour and water and let the wild yeasts that live in everything around us just come calling and ferment the starter with no help from commercial yeast. Once the starter was ready after 4 days, I proceeded to make the "Mother Starter" which is just a step further, making the starter usable for many of the recipes in the book. The first bread I tried after making the starter was a Caraway Deli Onion Rye. This bread was a fantastic success, doing everything it was supposed to do and the flavors were most amazing. I felt this was an auspicious start, so I proceeded to plan what else to make. One kind of bread I like is the really dense 100% rye. Rye does have some gluten in it, but not as much as wheat, so making anything completely from rye with no help from any wheat flour makes it a far more dense bread. Some groceries carry this kind of bread and I was buying it locally here for a while. 

Once I had finished with the starter, the barm and that first rye bread, and learning the barm could be frozen, I divided up the remaining barm and froze it to have ready at a day's notice and just took a break from the mess all over the kitchen for a few days. I then proceeded to read about more of the rye breads, as I had just bought a pound of rye berries. I decided on making the 100% Sourdough Rye. I got one of the frozen barm starters out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight, then divided that up, using one half to make the rye starter for that bread, and mixing more regular flour and water with the remainder to keep the barm going while I decided what else to make with it. 

100% Sourdough Rye: yesterday, loaves formed; today after 5 hours; loaves after baking

I will say, I am not having quite the "quick" response times as the book indicates when it comes to the rye. I mixed up the rye flour starter, and the book said it should take about 4 hours to double in size. I had the starter out the entire day long and it never really rose at all. It sort of relaxed and settled in the container but that was it. Finally late that night I put it in the fridge regardless, along with the refreshed barm. I mixed up the bread recipe yesterday, which indicated another 4 or so hours and the dough should have doubled or possibly gone to 1½ times its size  - NOT - Just wasn't happening. It grew a little. 

100% Sourdough Rye

After 6 hours I just formed the loaves and gave it another night refrigerated. At 6:00 AM this morning I got it out to come to room temperature and grow prior to baking; in a perfect world, 4 hours to double in size. That didn't happen either. Oh well. I left it out today for 5 hours and then baked just as indicated, using a very hot oven to start, with a pan of water for steam, opening the oven door after 30 seconds to spray the walls of the oven with more water, then after another 30 seconds, and after another 30 seconds. Then lowering the temperature, the loaves baked just as indicated, rising a bit, but remaining very heavy and dense. I expected heavy and dense, but it seemed the book indicated more growth than took place. Regardless, it is delicious.

Beautiful Challah loaves

While watching the 100% Sourdough Rye not doing anything all day yesterday, I decided to try making Challah. I have been making my Mom's (and Grandma's) bread recipe for more than 20 years. It is quite similar, in that it is a rich bread, using a fair amount of sugar, butter and eggs. Though I might have done things differently (as used to my Mom's bread as I am), but I followed the instructions for the Challah in the book to the letter; the dough came together just as stated. After kneading it stretched beautifully to create the "windowpane effect", meaning the dough stretched to a thin membrane without snapping. It grew just as stated, I formed one loaf into a braid and one in a loaf pan. They baked so beautifully I was in awe. They were the prettiest, lightest, most perfect loaves. I was in heaven. And, it tasted fantastic too. My husband said he could live on that bread just fine!

Today I made a batch of dough for pizza. I have been making my pizza dough from the same recipe for just ever. The Bread Baker's Apprentice has you making the dough up using ice water and then forming into individual balls and refrigerating for 1 to 3 days before using. Tomorrow, I am planning to make pizzas. My husband has a way of making his pizza that is certainly any Italian's nightmare. Tomorrow, he's going to have to put up with my idea of what a pizza should be, because with this dough I want to do my best to create a proper pizza. In a couple of days, with more of the dough, he can do his own thing.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.