My mandoline
I used to work in a little cafe in Pike Place Market called The Crumpet Shop. (If you’re ever there, stop in – they have excellent, inexpensive, healthy, homemade food and they are super friendly.) One of my jobs was to slice cucumbers, which I always did with a tiny, old-fashioned mandoline. While I don’t regularly slice anything anymore, I’ve wanted a mandoline of my own for years.
I finally got one.
This is definitely the first bread that a person new to bread should try. It’s very simple, very forgiving, and very tasty. It’s not as intimidating as other breads, either. The long recipe, amount of time, and all the steps might seem a little scary, but they are actually pretty easy.
I don’t know what made me decide to try making bread from scratch the first time a few years ago. Honestly, I’m pretty sure it was boredom and a desire for something new. I don’t remember what kind I made, either – I never thought that one loaf would lead me into the fascinating wilds of all kinds of baked goods. It certainly should have been a plain white but knowing myself as I do, it was probably one of the most complicated ones in the book.
But I loved making bread that first time, even though my attempts weren’t all that pretty, so I kept doing it when I had the chance. The silky flour in my hands, the rewarding ache of my muscles, and especially the warm smell and unmatchable taste of fresh-baked bread drove me to it.
This was originally posted on my other blog, What If. I’m moving it – and all of my baking posts – here in the next few weeks.
Experiments in Baking, it may seem obvious to say, springs from my love of baking. My love of baking, in turn, comes from my love of science, and my love for the incredibly basic yet transformational processes that turn a mixture of individual liquids and solids into a completely different, edible form.
the collapse, side view
My chemistry was a little off tonight. My egg whites wouldn’t peak at all and I, frustrated, simply mixed them in anyway. Which produced a chocolate cake, still edible, but completely collapsed in the center.
It’s still delicious, of course.
My younger brother came to visit right before Christmas. He seems to have a fear of failure, plus a lack of confidence in his own abilities. So the last couple of times he’s come to visit, I made him make bread with me – one of the hardest, and therefore most satisfying, things a person can do in baking.
This year, since it was so close to Christmas, we made Stollen. Read the rest of this entry »
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