In California. I love the brand new oven, the spice cabinet, and the large stock of baking supplies. Most importantly, I love the temperature: right around 70F almost all the time. The extraordinarily, strangely consistent weather in Palo Alto in spring through autumn makes baking a joy. In winter I struggle more with temperatures for proofing and rising, but the new oven has a "proof" mode that holds it at a steady 75.
 |
| Bellevue bread |
Over Christmas I went home to Bellevue and baked for my family. I first started baking when I lived at home after freshman year. I'm grateful to my parents for putting up with more than a year of awful bread, and I feel that I should make good bread for them in return. So I go home, I set my dough to rise, and...it doesn't. Because Seattle is north, and north is cold, and our house sits right around a happy 60F. Not too bad for humans, better for the environment than keeping the heat on high, but hard for the yeast that live inside my bread. Sometimes rises take twice as long; sometimes I try to put dough to rise inside an oven at the lowest temperature and accidentally start baking it, and once my bread completely failed to rise after an optimistic 24 hours of waiting.
Fortunately this time my first bread was a complete success. It was a whole wheat loaf with butter. Simple and easy. I baked in loaf pans so I didn't have to worry about shaping and so sluggish dough would have some support to rise up instead of spreading.
Approximate recipe:
2.5 - 3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 c hot water
1 - 2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar.
This is what I use as the base for a lot of my improv bread.
 |
| White bread, nice crumb. |
The next loaf I made on impulse when relatives came over, and I was rushing. It was the same recipe as the first loaf but I substituted in all-purpose flour and olive oil instead of butter. I didn't give it quite enough time to bake so after a few slices I hit a rather doughy core. I stuffed it back in the oven and let it bake for a few more minutes, then sliced off the newly-baked bits and repeated the process. It was delicious and led to more than a few jokes about half-baked ideas. I repeated that one a few days later and baked it properly for an even better bread experience.
Then I made whole-wheat molasses bread. It's one of my favorite loaves that I've made in California but this time something went wrong. I'm not sure if it was the brand of the flour, the type of molasses, or some environmental factor I can't identify.
Oh, and I also ended up redoing a bunch of grout in the kitchen while I was there. Maybe that's why I'm less sanguine about that kitchen than usual. Mom and Dad, if you're reading this and the grout failed please let me know so I can fly back and fix it.
