Here's a couple of pictures of the bread I baked from scratch. Thanks to Mrs Rose Levy Beranbaum and Jamie Oliver, I've learnt a few things about baking bread:
1. Keep your yeast alive! I sweated over the temperature of the water to mix the dry yeast in with the honey or sugar. I've figured out 'tepid water' means water that you can stick a clean finger into and it should neither feel cold nor hot, justly slightly warm. If it's too hot, the yeast will 'die' and your dough will not rise much.
2. Kneading is fun and therapeutic. It's not hard work at all. Just five minutes of folding, pushing and prodding the dough before the first proofing.
3. Add your fav ingredients (olives, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, chopped apricots, walnuts, etc) before the second proofing and shape dough into the final form you want. Slash the top half an inch deep two or three times with a sharp knife so the dough relaxes and rises nicely again. Place it onto a generously floured baking tray or loaf pan if you want it to be a more upright bread shape.
(At top is a 'window pane' montage of the wharf at Ascona, Ticino, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.)
10 comments:
Dear Argus,
Two thumbs up, way up! Your bread looks like the ones from our local specialty bread shop.
I love to knead bread but since I have shoulder tendinitis, I use my bread machine. Now, I have more time to do other things that are also therapeutic, like "blogging". ;)
Thanks, Mrs HBT. You're a big encouragement to novice bakers like me. :-D
Dear Argus,
I just noticed 4 yacht photos on your blog. Did you just post that or did I miss that when I came by the other day?
I love yacht view. I don't think I want to own a yacht because I don't swim. But, I would love to live in a house that has a yacht view, just like the houses on the side of the cliff shown in your photo.
Ur a genius at baking! Brownies and now bread?? What other yummy food are u good at making summore? early morning already making me hungry. Heheh...;o)
Dear MrsHBT, yes, I probably put up the Ascona wharf pictures a day after the bread ones. These were taken during a little extended weekend holiday in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, Ticino. My partner and I haven't gone sailing on any lake yet, although we intend to.
Hi, Spiffy. Long time no see! Now that I don't have a full-time job, I can bake goodies and read books as much as I want. :-D
Argus,
Jealous-nya aku...i wished for that one day that i dun havta work full-time. Till then..i can only dream..haha..;o)
Spiffy, in the meantime, save up for a good oven. It's worth every sen!
(The second half of my life is quite different from the first half, I must say, heh heh, even though both are enjoyable and satisfying in their own ways.)
i dun bake as much as u do Argus.. hehe..but i do agree with you, a good oven makes all the difference. ;o)
Mine has changed over the years as well..who would've known that i'll get to know wonderful friends like you, Xeus, Lydia, Eric, etc etc... =D my friends are all "wowww-ing" at me. *cheeky grin*
The others are pretty nice celebs in their own right, Spiff. I'm just a 'normal' person, with a touch (or more!) of insanity thrown in. But, hey, thanks.
my pleasure dear, my pleasure... =D
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