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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 1, 2016 18:31:57 GMT
I AM CHALLENGING ALL OF YOU--INDEED, ALL OF US--TO A ~BREAD CHALLENGE~ ...and by that I mean I am planning on doing a bread-a-week challenge with myself but like if anyone wants to jump on board or give suggestion or help motivate that would be awesome xD I've made bread a couple times in my day, but I'm always into the idea of getting back into it, but I never do. So!! I wish to push myself to get my hands doughy in the kitchen, make a habit of cooking and baking, and learn all sorts of new stuff, witchy and otherwise. Working with bread will also be a good way to help reconnect with the Earth and her element, because out of all of the elements I am most removed from her and it's a weird physical block as well and yadda yadda. I think this is both a creative and magical way to push myself, while doing something enjoyable! So! Here I go with Challenge 1: A BASIC WHITE LOAF www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basic-soft-white-sandwich-loaf-351269This is the first one I ever made, but that was... 3 years ago? It was really good, mainly because I was making half the recipe but forgot to half the butter xD Anyways, basics is always a good place to start. I will make this bread TOMORROW! Yall hold me to that, okay? Demand the pictures. I will show you some beautiful bread (or, some ok bread, at least). <3
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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 3, 2016 14:21:25 GMT
Guess who made some wonderful bread!!!!! Don't know if yall ready for this but: Next step: making bread that has a magical component, instead of just a trial run :]
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Post by elementallycharmed on Jul 3, 2016 15:26:16 GMT
How awesome!! I was thinking about making a magical cake! Not sure the intent yet. This looks amazing!!
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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 4, 2016 16:09:34 GMT
Thank you! I really want to make a cinnamon swirl bread next, maybe with raisins! For prosperity and celebration of... something. Maybe for my sister's bday? We'll see!
Magical cake sounds awesome. What kind of ingredients were you thinking of?
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Post by elementallycharmed on Jul 4, 2016 20:47:50 GMT
Vanilla and lavender!
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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 5, 2016 13:35:07 GMT
OMG YES DO IT AND POST PICS
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sykax
Junior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by sykax on Jul 5, 2016 22:25:53 GMT
I NEED to do to this. I bet it taste so much better than store bought bread!
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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 11, 2016 14:20:00 GMT
More bread update: I tried a bran and cranberry loaf! I kinda made up my own recipe, which I'm super proud of??? It didn't work as perfectly as last time-- it was very under-baked and I think I rushed a third rise-- but here are two more pics, one a silly selfie: If anyone wants the recipe, I'll be more than willing to share! Though it's not perfected, obviously. It's still edible and I like to spread jam on it. It isn't sweet, but very tasty in that whole wheat way-- and the bran worked really well! I also got to explore the science of it all, which is fascinating. I'm kinda thinking of starting a bread blog, which talks about all the different components and experiments and advice for how things work as I practice. But I think a third loaf is in order first, just so I get into the project a bit more. But! Here's some science behind whole wheat flour vs white flour, esp in regards to adding bran: The wheat grain is actually comprised of three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. White flour is just the endosperm sifted out from the other two components, which is a lot easier to work with in developing gluten strands and bread rise, but is lacking in the nutrients the other two parts have. On the other hand, the bran and germ has a lot more macronutrients--such as fiber, calcium, iron[1]-- but is much heavier/sharper than the endosperm just by itself. So when you make whole wheat bread, it is a lot harder to get a good rise, because the bran and germ will slice through the gluten strands you've developed via yeast rise and kneading and making the dough more fragile. A neutral side effect, depending on your plan for your bread, is since there is so much yummy stuff the yeast desires in whole wheat flour, the dough itself will rise faster. When I learned all this, and realized I was adding yet more bran to the loaf, I was like "uh oh". But I tried to adjust the recipe around it, and I think I did a good job! The most important things I did was 1, add more water to the recipe, because the whole wheat grain will just soak that right up, 2, kept kneading to a minimum, and 3, of my own idea, which was pre-ferment some of the yeast with some of the flour and all of the bran, so the yeast might break down the bran a bit and make it less likely to do damage to the bread's rise. Yeah! Fun adventures. My plan for next time is to cut the recipe by a 1/3 of it's ingredients, pay more attention to the rise, figure out if the butter might have made it too dense, and add more cranberries during the first mix so adding them in doesn't make me have to knead it longer than I need to. Cheers!
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Post by Kayla Maria on Jul 16, 2016 19:12:58 GMT
A very wise man once said, "Don't half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing." That wise man was Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. Which I have been re-watching recently and it's been fantastic. But I think I should have heeded that advice before deciding to bake two loaves of bread simultaneously this morning. One was a beautiful disaster, and one came out okay, if a little small and flat! I wasn't very organized. I tried to be, really, but I started growing the yeast before I had everything set up and my plan and recipe put together. And then things didn't look right, and I added stuff willy-nilly, and misunderstood some research, yadda yadda. But every failure is a future success! So here is my very sticky, sweet, tacky gluten-free bread loaf result: Yum, right? It was my first time using a combination of GF flours, and it wasn't very smooth. I used white rice flour, tapioca flour (as a substitute for a lot of other flours...) and corn starch. If I were to try that combo again, I'd say much less tapioca, more corn starch, and more yeast. It was a batter I poured into a pan after rising, not a dough. So, that didn't go according to plan. But all's fine! I learned an important lesson: don't try and change a recipe unless you have a better understanding of the ingredients. Actually trust online recipes. It'll be fine. x] A better bread was my Rosemary Olive Oil bread, which I just took out of the oven. I'm much happier with this, though it doesn't look as good as other results: Especially since I tried to take two recipes and combine them? I don't have a bread machine, so I found a really cool recipe that sounded perfect but whose instructions were "put in bread machine". Very helpful. I think I should have kneaded it much more, and let it rise a lot more-- because of the short rising times, I didn't knead it a ton because I was afraid of breaking up the gluten. So I should have pounded it down and rolled it around and let it rise back up 3 times, like I normally do. But! I just tasted it and it's actually very tasty. So, hurrah for that! I think that's enough bread baking for this week. Next week might be another attempt at this, with some fiddling. In any case, end scene!
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