Monday, February 11, 2013

Baking bread, part 2

The morning I posted my first bread baking post, my mom called to let me know that my grandma had passed away. She'd been in failing health for some number of years and had recently moved to the nursing home, so it wasn't a huge surprise. I'm not exactly in a mood to write, so I am hoping to fill most of the rest of this week with guest posts. Grandma was amazing. Here is her obituary if you're curious.

Still, here I was with a loaf of fresh bread and a bummed out attitude, so I ate half of it with butter while sitting at my computer. It was yummy, but moister than I thought it should have been.

Homeslices

I decided to pop another pound of dough into the crock pot for Dan. He was pretty disappointed that I wouldn't let him cut open the first loaf while it was still hot. This time I decided to let it cook until I was convinced the bottom was fully browned. Seventy minutes, another twenty, another thirty, another fifteen and it was finally golden enough that I felt comfortable popping it in the broiler.

Good enough

Four minutes later, it was done...though you can see from this shot why I hate my oven so much.

Not exactly even, but...

Then, I waited all day long to cut into it, until Dan got home. He said it was delicious and ate about half of the loaf. I tried a slice with my evening pills and it was a little dense but in a way that you expect a sourdough to be. The crusts were crisp enough and the insides weren't too chewy, with lots of air bubbles, so I don't think I killed the yeast or over-kneaded. I decided to make a little sandwich with part of the remainder of this loaf for lunch on Friday.

Heaven on a plate

Omigosh you guys. I had to make a second one with the last of the bread, because it was so delicious. This is just two slices of my bread, a little butter, three thin slices of hard salami, a little bit of shredded monterrey jack cheese, and ten seconds in the microwave. Cut in half and voila! You will freak out. I am calling homemade bread a "win" just based on my lunch. Mmmmm. This is now high on my list for comfort foods. (On a related note I will be delivering home baked bread to my mom ASAP.)

No comments:

Post a Comment