Sunday, May 20, 2007

Bread Redoux

I've been meaning to post about the bread I made a couple of weeks ago. It was not a big success but it was fun and funny and Miss D helped.
i think I knew it wasn't going to be what I wanted from the minute I read the recipe but it was from Jaques Pepin's technique book and it didn't call for a starter so i thought I'd give it whirl.
Here's the ingredient that gave me pause: all purpose flour.
Everything went fine. i discovered i must have killed my Kitchenaid mixer on the last bread I made so i will be making everything by hand till I can drag my ass to the suburbs and get it fixed. Luckily Miss D helped me knead....
I followed the directions and did the first 2 hour rise. He then says you can knock it down and let it rise again- but doesn't specify how long the 2nd rise should be. So I did another 2 hours which I suspect was too much.
Then there was the shaping. He gave no directions for shaping other than to pull it into a long shape and put it in a couche or baguette pan. For anyone who's ever made bread before you know that the shaping is an important step. And when my bread rose all over the place, knocking over one of the wood pieces of the couche, I learned why.

i also neglected to take the size of my bread stone in to account when I stretched the dough so When i went put it in the oven I ended up having to sort of well... I'll let the results speak to themselves.
Or rather I will post them in a separate post since I can't seem to put it here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee Steph I'd comment on the shape but I'm afraid the ideas the shape have for me run into the anatomical and non-PG

alexis said...

hahahahah! Even your bad bread efforts are beautiful. Your bread kick reminds me of my pie-days back in Kalamazoo. Oh for an oven!!!! WAAAAAAH.

I am a little concerned about Miss D's kneading technique, but perhaps that's just the picture.

Pulisha said...

Hee! I love the pic of Miss D with flour all over. Cooking/baking with kids can be fun, but you have to be willing to clean up the mess!

BTW: I am continually impressed by these baking efforts of yours. Although I have always enjoyed cooking, baking has never been my forte. Mom's strawberry pie is about as adventurous as I get!

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Hysterical! It looks good, though though I'm concerned that apparently Miss D thought kneading meant "to use your knees".