My stove arrived Sunday about 1:15. and I went to work. I woke up at 8AM after a night of relaxing cocktails after work and instead of taking it easy, I put on my slippers, a hard hat, and my safety glasses and went to town. I wrestled with the old vs. new gas line, and spent most of the day installing a recycled oven hood in a spot it wasn't meant to be in. Finally, for the first time in 9 months, I have my oven range. For the first time in 3 years, I now have a working oven and broiler. I was so excited to cook, and cook I did. Roasted potatoes, meat, and some fried stuff. I wolfed it down. That isn't the best part, however - it is the crazy cool bread blog from Shira that really inspired me. I haven't made a loaf of bread in 20 years. Really. So, my first attempt in a new and freshly seasoned stove was an epic adventure of grains and adjuncts. I produced a honey whole wheat bread with a lovely honey glaze on top. This is a 1.5 pound loaf, and delicious. The crust is crusty and the inside is moist and fluffy. The honey accents the grain, but doesn't overpower it, just like I wanted. I think this bread would be perfect for toast, French toast, or just riding solo. It took 7 hours overall to rise, which let the wonderful yeast develop some complex flavors. At first I thought I didn't knead it well enough and it was too course. It turns out that when you use a crappy steak knife from the Dollar Store instead of a real bread knife, it tends to mangle your bread. *Note to self.: get some real utensils.* To accompany my triumph, I made a honey ale compound butter from scratch. I shook the crap out of the cream until my fats separated and voila: butter. Then I mashed in sea salt, ale, and honey. Frikkin' perfect to go with the bread. Recipe is below.
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
5 cups of whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons of proofed active dry yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
3/4 cup of honey
Rise time: 3 hours to 75% in doubled size, reform and 4 hours to double in size.
Cook time: 30 minutes at 350 degrees with a pan of water and 1 topcoat of water. Remove pan, brush water then honey on top and cook additional 15 min.
Cool time: 20 minutes
I've made orange butter to go on blueberry scones before and it was so good. So I have a half gallon of milk that just started going bad. Any ideas what I should make with it? Buttermilk bread? Can I use it instead u think?
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the range.
So I wrote this on FB but add vital wheat gluten to 100% whole wheat bread. It makes SUCH a difference and I'm about to post about getting good slices out of your bread. I decided I just have to "pretend" that I'm an electric knife - little quick back and forth cuts and if you like it thin hold the slice of bread up while cutting so it doesn't fall and break in half. Go bread buddie!
ReplyDeletemake butter with the milk!
ReplyDelete