COVID-19 Virus Shutdown, Day 45
Whole wheat bread take two!
After I took and posted pics of the pretty fluffy whole wheat bread yesterday, when we tried cutting in to it, it turned out it was doughy in the center.
Even cooking it another 30 mins did nothing to cook the center, and we threw it out. What a sad thing to do.
Today I was determined not to end in failure.
I looked up what are ways to tell that the bread is done, because just looking at it, with a new bread recipe you have no idea what it's meant to look like. This is one of the ways listed, but clearly that did not work.
There is the hollow sound tap, but not being practiced at this, I'm not sure what it should sound like.
And then there is finally temperature. This one is helpful especially to a novice bread baker.
The rule of thumb is, for regular breads, you look for about 190F. And for egg rich breads, like challah, you look for 200F. I can do this!
I made it again, this time in the mixer with the dough hook. (Only because my bread maker bowl was in the dishwasher!)
I let it sit and rise in larger loaf pan, which took me several tries to find by the way. (I'm still missing a pan somewhere)
About 20 mins in, about where the recipe says it's close to done, I put the thermometer in at a diagonal (so you cant really see the hole that way later on) and it was like 116 degrees. Ah, no wonder.
I set the timer to tell me when 190 was reached. Hubby came by later and said it was about 185 before he went outside.
What seemed like a LONG time later, it still hadn't beeped so I checked. It was at 205. OH!
So I hurried up and pulled it out.
It was looking rather dry on top, which really is the nature of a whole wheat bread, so I slathered on some butter to make it look pretty. I didnt bother with the seeds.
Bread #1, once I turned it on it's side, the seeds all fell off, so it didn't make sense without doing an egg wash to keep it on there.
The crust was much darker this time. I finished cooling it and cut the bread for lunch.
I loved it. Son said it was a 3 out of 5 for texture. I guess he likes it mushy.
It didn't dry out I was relieved to see. Once we were done eating, I put the rest in a gallon bag to keep it from drying out.
It will only last a couple days, so I'll probably try my hand at freezing bread, too.
Once satisfied that I had finished making Honey Whole Wheat Bread I decided to move on to another bread. I'm not sure which one however so stay tuned for that.
Meanwhile I finished my book Iron and Silk yesterday. So I was going to go grab a new one, and the old cookbooks on the shelf started calling to me. Are there secret recipes that I am missing out on in there? I grabbed the oldest looking BC cookbook, knowing that she's always got some wisdom to impart. This one is from 1956.
There are indeed some things I have never heard of in there. Many of them turned out to be something similar to what I had heard of. It's interesting to me how we rename some of the foods or definitions as time goes by. For example, "rendering" is used today to mean cooking out the fat out of something so you can use the fat in a recipe, like with bacon. But the word "try out" seems to mean the same thing. I think we just stuck with rendering after a while.
It has some cool pictures of a 'reception area' that looks as big as my house, a kitchen that rivals the one we work in at school, and a dining room with a fireplace and antiques along the outside.
One of the "special helps" that they list is, "Every morning before breakfast, comb hair, apply makeup, a dash of cologne, and perhaps some simple earrings. Does wonders for your morale. "
Yes it does, Betty. We are re-learning that now while in isolation.
I perused the advice for storing and freezing foods, and ended up spending most of my day reading up on menus. I have a ton of recipes, but putting them together has been a bit more elusive.
My current formula for dinner is to have one meat, one starch, one veg, one fruit, and potentially some dairy. Then dessert.
Betty expands on that with Meat or main, potatoes or alternate(starch), veg, salad, bread, dessert, and "Something special" which is usually a relish, sauce or condiment.
The difference being she adds a bread and a salad. I may adopt her way if I can find some really good salads.
She had some ideas for meals if you are having a fashion luncheon, or at the White House (gosh, will they let me cook there?), or entertaining in Hollywood. She sure has high hopes for me, doesn't she? :) All kidding aside, she did have some good ideas.
By the dirtiest pages, I can see which ones were popular in this house, years ago (the cookbook was inherited from hubby's grandma).
There are some strange combinations like veggies in aspic, but there is enough to pull a recipe or two from in here.
All in all, a pretty good find, if for nothing more than a peek into 1950s cooking.
Once I had gone through the book and got some menu ideas captured, it was time to work outside. I'd been dreading this because my body is already sore from yesterday (does this gardening thing get easier?). But it's getting near time to cut grass. So the sticks had to be dealt with.
I got three loads of sticks tied together, finished the front garden, sectioning it off before my back just would not take anymore.
I guess I'm not as young as I think I am.
I got 2 of the 5 piles done at least, and made room for the budding hosta busting through the ground. It's good to see them again.
My yard is looking better than it has been in a long time. I'm kinda proud of that.
I ordered some thicker twine online. I still have a couple days work to do at this pace to get the sticks picked up. But I'm loving the green grass and budding leaves on the roses. I have a baby rose that I'd forgotten planting, so that was a nice surprise!
I just need to keep up on the weeding this year. I'm thinking that won't be a problem. :)
I usually feel better (except for my back) when I go out and dig in the dirt. The sun really does me some good.
I came back in and had a popsicle, some ibuprofen, and sat down for an hour, felt good again.
I ended up making cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese for dinner.
Earlier this week, I already had some lactaid milk and ended up buying another without realizing it. At the same time I got almond milk. And one of them had a slow leak. I cleaned that up and just kept going, until I ended up cleaning the whole fridge. I discovered I had two bottles of ketchup. Sigh. Hate it when I do that.
Anyway, since I asked hubby to keep his water jugs, I put both half gallons into the one gallon container. Since I now have a gallon of milk to drink, I figured I'd better start using it up!
Thus the mac and cheese.
So they way I do it, I make a roux of flour and butter, cook that so it doesnt taste like flour, but not too dark. Then I add lactaid milk and stir while I simmer. It thickens a little but not a lot. I added a dash of nutmeg, half a bay leaf and some onion powder. This is a classic bechamel flavor, but I didnt deal with the real onion cut in half and grilled. Too much waste.
Now to flavor it. I added equal parts shredded yellow and white sharp cheddars and melted them while I stir stir stir. The sauce really thickens at this point. Still no salt, by the way.
The elbow mac that I had made was cooked and ready, so I added them together, ensuring I had the right ratio of cheese sauce to macaroni. I only used half of a box of noodles on this one.
At this point I added grated Kraft parmesan cheese, the cheap stuff with corn starch added it in, because it helps get the right consistency. Plus I love the flavor. Then I added salt but only after tasting it. It can get way too salty with all the cheese so you have to be careful.
This turned out really good. And since cheddar and parmesan have little lactic acid, it didn't cause a reaction. Hallelujah!
Hope your day went as well.
Stay safe, sane, and healthy!
Vicky
After I took and posted pics of the pretty fluffy whole wheat bread yesterday, when we tried cutting in to it, it turned out it was doughy in the center.
Even cooking it another 30 mins did nothing to cook the center, and we threw it out. What a sad thing to do.
Today I was determined not to end in failure.
I looked up what are ways to tell that the bread is done, because just looking at it, with a new bread recipe you have no idea what it's meant to look like. This is one of the ways listed, but clearly that did not work.
There is the hollow sound tap, but not being practiced at this, I'm not sure what it should sound like.
And then there is finally temperature. This one is helpful especially to a novice bread baker.
The rule of thumb is, for regular breads, you look for about 190F. And for egg rich breads, like challah, you look for 200F. I can do this!
I made it again, this time in the mixer with the dough hook. (Only because my bread maker bowl was in the dishwasher!)
I let it sit and rise in larger loaf pan, which took me several tries to find by the way. (I'm still missing a pan somewhere)
About 20 mins in, about where the recipe says it's close to done, I put the thermometer in at a diagonal (so you cant really see the hole that way later on) and it was like 116 degrees. Ah, no wonder.
 |
| temping the bread |
 |
| not even close dont follow time on a recipe! |
I set the timer to tell me when 190 was reached. Hubby came by later and said it was about 185 before he went outside.
What seemed like a LONG time later, it still hadn't beeped so I checked. It was at 205. OH!
So I hurried up and pulled it out.
 |
| finished bread |
 |
| butter makes it better |
It was looking rather dry on top, which really is the nature of a whole wheat bread, so I slathered on some butter to make it look pretty. I didnt bother with the seeds.
Bread #1, once I turned it on it's side, the seeds all fell off, so it didn't make sense without doing an egg wash to keep it on there.
The crust was much darker this time. I finished cooling it and cut the bread for lunch.
I loved it. Son said it was a 3 out of 5 for texture. I guess he likes it mushy.
It didn't dry out I was relieved to see. Once we were done eating, I put the rest in a gallon bag to keep it from drying out.
It will only last a couple days, so I'll probably try my hand at freezing bread, too.
Once satisfied that I had finished making Honey Whole Wheat Bread I decided to move on to another bread. I'm not sure which one however so stay tuned for that.
Meanwhile I finished my book Iron and Silk yesterday. So I was going to go grab a new one, and the old cookbooks on the shelf started calling to me. Are there secret recipes that I am missing out on in there? I grabbed the oldest looking BC cookbook, knowing that she's always got some wisdom to impart. This one is from 1956.
 |
| we love betty's books here |
There are indeed some things I have never heard of in there. Many of them turned out to be something similar to what I had heard of. It's interesting to me how we rename some of the foods or definitions as time goes by. For example, "rendering" is used today to mean cooking out the fat out of something so you can use the fat in a recipe, like with bacon. But the word "try out" seems to mean the same thing. I think we just stuck with rendering after a while.
It has some cool pictures of a 'reception area' that looks as big as my house, a kitchen that rivals the one we work in at school, and a dining room with a fireplace and antiques along the outside.
 |
| let's go here an cook! |
One of the "special helps" that they list is, "Every morning before breakfast, comb hair, apply makeup, a dash of cologne, and perhaps some simple earrings. Does wonders for your morale. "
Yes it does, Betty. We are re-learning that now while in isolation.
I perused the advice for storing and freezing foods, and ended up spending most of my day reading up on menus. I have a ton of recipes, but putting them together has been a bit more elusive.
My current formula for dinner is to have one meat, one starch, one veg, one fruit, and potentially some dairy. Then dessert.
Betty expands on that with Meat or main, potatoes or alternate(starch), veg, salad, bread, dessert, and "Something special" which is usually a relish, sauce or condiment.
The difference being she adds a bread and a salad. I may adopt her way if I can find some really good salads.
She had some ideas for meals if you are having a fashion luncheon, or at the White House (gosh, will they let me cook there?), or entertaining in Hollywood. She sure has high hopes for me, doesn't she? :) All kidding aside, she did have some good ideas.
By the dirtiest pages, I can see which ones were popular in this house, years ago (the cookbook was inherited from hubby's grandma).
There are some strange combinations like veggies in aspic, but there is enough to pull a recipe or two from in here.
All in all, a pretty good find, if for nothing more than a peek into 1950s cooking.
Once I had gone through the book and got some menu ideas captured, it was time to work outside. I'd been dreading this because my body is already sore from yesterday (does this gardening thing get easier?). But it's getting near time to cut grass. So the sticks had to be dealt with.
I got three loads of sticks tied together, finished the front garden, sectioning it off before my back just would not take anymore.
I guess I'm not as young as I think I am.
I got 2 of the 5 piles done at least, and made room for the budding hosta busting through the ground. It's good to see them again.
My yard is looking better than it has been in a long time. I'm kinda proud of that.
I ordered some thicker twine online. I still have a couple days work to do at this pace to get the sticks picked up. But I'm loving the green grass and budding leaves on the roses. I have a baby rose that I'd forgotten planting, so that was a nice surprise!
I just need to keep up on the weeding this year. I'm thinking that won't be a problem. :)
I usually feel better (except for my back) when I go out and dig in the dirt. The sun really does me some good.
I came back in and had a popsicle, some ibuprofen, and sat down for an hour, felt good again.
I ended up making cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese for dinner.
Earlier this week, I already had some lactaid milk and ended up buying another without realizing it. At the same time I got almond milk. And one of them had a slow leak. I cleaned that up and just kept going, until I ended up cleaning the whole fridge. I discovered I had two bottles of ketchup. Sigh. Hate it when I do that.
Anyway, since I asked hubby to keep his water jugs, I put both half gallons into the one gallon container. Since I now have a gallon of milk to drink, I figured I'd better start using it up!
Thus the mac and cheese.
So they way I do it, I make a roux of flour and butter, cook that so it doesnt taste like flour, but not too dark. Then I add lactaid milk and stir while I simmer. It thickens a little but not a lot. I added a dash of nutmeg, half a bay leaf and some onion powder. This is a classic bechamel flavor, but I didnt deal with the real onion cut in half and grilled. Too much waste.
Now to flavor it. I added equal parts shredded yellow and white sharp cheddars and melted them while I stir stir stir. The sauce really thickens at this point. Still no salt, by the way.
The elbow mac that I had made was cooked and ready, so I added them together, ensuring I had the right ratio of cheese sauce to macaroni. I only used half of a box of noodles on this one.
At this point I added grated Kraft parmesan cheese, the cheap stuff with corn starch added it in, because it helps get the right consistency. Plus I love the flavor. Then I added salt but only after tasting it. It can get way too salty with all the cheese so you have to be careful.
This turned out really good. And since cheddar and parmesan have little lactic acid, it didn't cause a reaction. Hallelujah!
Hope your day went as well.
Stay safe, sane, and healthy!
Vicky
Comments
Post a Comment