Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Need To Knead



               Look into my eyes...you are feeling sleepy...the dog needs a snack..give the dog some bread

For those of you visiting here from J's blog, you know this face!  For those of you who are not from http://www.365dollaryear.blogspot.com, this is Bear our 4 year old rescued Golden.  Bear is obsessed with bread which is why his picture is on the blog today!  It doesn't matter if its in the very early stages of being made, raising or just sitting on the counter, I must be making it just for him.  We first noticed his interest in bread the second day he was with us when he jumped up and casually borrowed a slice of bread out of the toaster.  At first we thought it was just a dare to see if he could counter surf and get away with it.  Later, we discovered it was much more than that when he sneakily stole an entire loaf of freshly baked oatmeal bread off the back corner of the counter and proceeded to attempt to covertly consume the entire thing before even we had a slice from it.  He has a broad range of taste in bread and enjoys everything from grocery store white to oatmeal molasses raisin.  Just last week I found him in the kitchen sitting, staring at the top of the refrigerator where the  kaiser rolls had been carefully placed for safekeeping.

I sit here this morning attempting to resist the urge to bake bread but the kitchen and the siren calls of kneading and then later the wonderful aroma that fills the house keep tempting me.  I first tried baking my own bread last year.  Trust me it wasn't for health reasons, it was a challenge for me.  I was afraid to do it and I needed to get over it.  I started with a white bread recipe I had found on http://www.epicurious.com, it was an interesting try and turned out well.  For me the fear was having the bread dough stuck to the counter.  This was what had happened on my pie crust attempt (something I have yet to retry).  I had pie crust firmly attached to the counter and the rolling pin. It was a mess and scarred me.  I was terrified of making anything gooey that I had to either roll or knead.    I moved on from there to a wheat bread, then an oatmeal bread, a oatmeal molasses raisin bread and finally last weeks kaiser rolls.  I am still and always will be an amateur bread maker but, I am willing to try just about any recipe.

What about you?  Do you have a fear of bread or do you knead away happily?
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3 comments:

  1. j.July 12, 2011 at 1:44 PM

    I'm miserable at following recipes, and baking really needs recipe following, so I stick with easier "bread" recipes, like foccacia or pizza dough (which are really the same recipe when I do them). I'm not good with stuff that needs to rise to look right, but I'm not too bad with things like pita.

    Oh, and I made naan once, does that count?

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  2. stephen sarbiewskiJuly 31, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    I've stopped kneading bread period. As a long time baker, I found my hands tended to increasingly complain over the kneading. About 2 years ago found No-Knead bread. I'm a big fan and still make this bread regularly. It takes a day but only about 5 minutes actually hands on. After 2 years, I still love the texture, crunch and taste of this bread. I made a page with directions and pictures.
    http://ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com/p/bread-and-how-to-make-it.html

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  3. ColleenJuly 31, 2011 at 11:34 PM

    Stephen,
    Thanks, I will have to try it. The first time I made a no-knead bread I thought they had left a step out of the recipe. The one I have is for an Oatmeal, Molasses, Rasin Bread. I will try to make it and post it this week! BTW, I think we actually know each other from many years ago.

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