Livebreading the blog

[desperance]

The back was absolutely fine, thanks.

I'm a little concerned about the age of the yeast, which is officially Past Its Best. We'll see; the standard dough is kneaded up and in the airing-cupboard. I am not pinning all my hopes on its success; I have indeed very little invested in it. I shall drink a pint of coffee and do an hour's work, and go poke at it. If it looks viable, we shall vie; if not, there's always noodles. Noodles and tomorrow. That shall be our daily motto: "there's always noodles and tomorrow." It's as deep as you want it to be.

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Courtesy of my daugfhter's ex-boyfriend's mother I have a breadmaker, so fresh bread - about three or four times a week, or daily when we have visitors - is standard in our household. I love it. I have the recipe and the making refined down to a fine art.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm still not sure where I stand on breadmakers. I do have friends who swear by 'em, and if the alternative is commercial stuff, then yay. On the other hand, I believe not only in real food but also in real cooking: in this instance, flour under the fingernails and an ache in the shoulders, dough in the airing-cupboard rising. This is how bread was meant to happen, y'know...?

Happily, I'm not even torn on this one; I have no space for a breadmaker, and no need either. If I want to get back into breadmaking, it takes fifteen minutes to knock a dough together, and I only get through one loaf a week. There's really no labour to save.

[camies.livejournal.com]

I think if I didn't have a breadmaker I would never make my own bread. As it is, at the moment the breadmaker is whirring away with a new brown loaf in the making. Soup on the other hand, I do make my own and this weekend's was tasty if I say so myself (gammon, red pepper, leeks, and a base note of potatoes and parsnips. And some cream).

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

*soup envy*

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I used to bake bread by hand when we were first married. I had a big old Victorian bowl - half of a bowl and jug set - which took half a stone of flour for bread and I could get eleven wholemeal loaves out of it, one for fresh 'today' and the others in the freezer for the rest of the week.

In those days we had a dog with a sensitive gut and the vet recommended that we avoid tinned dogfood and feed him half a wholemeal loaf with about 6 oz of fresh meat (often tongues from a friend at the abbatoir) boiled in water - the meat and water cooled and poured over the broken up bread. That meant we went through quite a lot of bread and I didn't want to feed him whatever un-doggie addtives were in bought bread. The cheapest and safest way (and nicest for us) was to bake my own. It was quite a big job, though with half a stone at a time.

I stopped bread-baking when the kids were small. When #1 daughter was 20 months we took over a post office and then #1 son arrived a year later. Between the shop and the kids I was just about tied me hand and foot (for 4 years until I gave it up to play at something else). I never got back into the habit of baking, so the breadmaker is great for me. I figure I've kneeded enogh half-stone batches of bread in my life to be able to sit back smugly and take it easy on this one. (Besides, if I don't notice the previous loaf has passed the halfway point BB can work the breadmaker himself - it's a machine, you see, it's not scary cooking - whereas he would not bake bread.) And yes, our alternative is supermarket bread stuffed in the freezer, as there are no daily shops within walking distance.

At first the breadmaker bread was hit and miss but I have it tamed now and my loaves are pretty damn perfect every time.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Half a stone? *boggles gently*

I think you're right; you have earned both your smugness and your machine...

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

The half-stone thing (that's a batch of bread made with 7 pounds of flour to the Americans reading) was very theraputic, but quite hard physical work when it came to the kneeding. Very satisfying, though. I'm not sure I could do it now because I used to put the bowl down on the floor in front of the fire to get some weight behind my arms. (I can't kneel now.)

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Kneading bread kills me (almost literally) but the joy of the process makes it worthwhile. When I am rich and bloated (as opposed to merely bloated) I have promised myself a proper mixer with a dough hook that can knead a proper amount of bread. Than I'll become even more bloated because eating home made bread while it is still fresh - if not actually hot - is something of a sacred duty.