Sunday, June 28, 2009

Shara's Adventures in Breadmaking...

Yesterday was pretty busy- Our Farmer's Choice I think will be a regular shopping place during the challenge, and it's good to know that they also have other local things their too- like the yummy cherry tomatoes I got there.

We also decided to try making bread in our new breadmaker. It was interesting to say the least! (Both attempts!) We got some hard wheat bread flour earlier at Oak Manor, so we used that with local honey, water, yeast & salt to make our first loaf. Of course, I got talking to the husband and forgot how many cups of flour I'd put in. Since it could have been the right amont, we baked it anyway but it was a sorry hard little loaf that we found when we came home that night- not enough flour I guess!

Loaf #2 fared a little better- used a different recipe which called for flour & a cup of oats, plus the other goodies. It was ok, but still underproofed- Rick declared it a success but it's a far cry from the light fluffy loaves you get at the bakery. I dunno, while I am a bit dissappointed (I thought the machine would make better loaves than the one's I'd made by hand), I haven't given up yet! Maybe the hard wheat is harder for breadmachines? Wrong setting? Guess I have 100 days to find out! I also want to try pizza dough and buns sometime which it'll also do (along with freezer jam for some reason which I thought weird).

Next week I hope to take a trip to Herrle's to pick strawberries just in time for Canada Day- yum!

2 comments:

  1. Late here, but I was going to tell you that wheat almost never has an incredibly light crumb, but also that you will always get a better crumb handmaking loaves than you will with a bread machine. I've found a lot of success with using a stand mixer to knead the really obnoxious ones, which usually gives me the effect I'm going for.

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