Doing:... Scoring a free UNUSED worm farm on Freecycle. Yeah, baby! I'm hoping to get it set up and running and then donate it to my daughter's preschool, although I am still talking them into it as they are worried it might attract vermin and therefore affect their accreditation. I think I'm winning the argument though ;-)
... Picking up an almost free kitchen sink! I won it for 99c on eBay although I gave the lady $5 to cover her listing costs and time. I've been looking for an old, small single bowl metal sink for ages so I'm stoked to have found one finally. Every other one I've looked at won't fit in the spot I have for it - it will be mounted on the wall above our main backyard tap (next to our rainwater tank) and I'll use it to rinse my vegies off before bringing them inside. The water will drain into a bucket underneath which will be thrown straight back on the garden.
Making:... More Bliss Balls. Rolling the balls and coating them with coconut is Miss Three's favourite activity at the moment, this our third batch in a week LOL :-) Luckily, each batch has been quite different as we used up different dried fruit, seeds and nuts.
Baking: ... My first 100% wholemeal (whole wheat) Artisan Bread loaf. We had been enjoying the standard boule recipe before school started, although I was having trouble getting mine to look blog-worthy LOL. They all tasted nice, but looked a bit ordinary as for some reason they tended to creep sideways instead of rising up nicely whilst resting, hence no photos. We went back to our standard sandwich loaf once school started however so I haven't made any dough up for a few weeks. Inspired by Kel's delicious-looking boule yesterday however, I mixed up the 100% wholemeal dough last night and baked my first this morning in a small loaf pan.
The word "brick" came to mind on my first look at it.
However, it does taste pretty good! Really nice, although too sweet for my liking for sandwich bread, so I will try a wholemeal/white mix next. Again, like my standard boule, it didn't rise as much as I expected so I've done some Googling to try and troubleshoot - I suspect perhaps my dough is too wet, plus I obviously didn't use enough dough in the pan with this loaf. I'm going to try it again tomorrow using the rest of the dough mix (and some extra flour) and see if that works. Any other suggestions?
By the way, for anyone who has the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, if you haven't already found it, the authors have a website and an errata page, which is definitely worth reading.
In the Garden: ... Noting that my poor (new) banana tree looks dreadful. It blew over on the hottest day we had recently (43'C) onto our black pavers, which literally cooked most of the leaves. When I found it (we'd been out), most of the leaves were black and limp! I left it out in the rain this week in the hopes of reviving it, but what leaves it had left have now sagged!
Ah well, on the other hand, the potted mango I thought has succumbed to a fungal disease is throwing out pretty new growth. You win some, you lose some I guess.
Dinner: ... Pumpkin soup and fresh crusty bread.
Reading: ... The Artisan Bread in Five blog.
Contemplating:... The pig sty in the kids' playroom... and opting for a cup of tea instead ;-)
11 comments:
We've had three worm farms
running for many years and
they've never attracted
vermin even though I sometimes
get slack and chuck meat in
them. Or maybe our two cats
are taking care of the
vermin!
Hi Julie, If you ever find out why the bread spreads sideways instead of upwards, PLEASE let me know !
I've tried everything I can think of and still make frizbees. :-)
oh i love a freebie too! they warm my heart. Thanks for the jolt about the sink- thats EXACTLY what i need. I hate coming in with dirt and clogging my sink- stooopid me never even thought of a sink outside! Great idea. and im really looking forward to seeing if my bread will end up like everyone elses seems to be doing!
Hello!
I've been enjoying reading your blogging .. most inspiring! :)
Therefore, could you please drop by my blog to pick up an award I'd love to share with you.
http://serenadesandsolace.blogspot.com/
Kindest regards,
Alecat
I had a couple of sideways loves too. I've found that reducing the cooking temp slightly and increasing the cooking time to compensate has improve the appearance (and crust) of my loaves. I'm baking at about 210 degrees for 40ish minutes.
I've made both the standard boule recipe and the white sandwich loaf with buttermilk in it using unbleached spelt flour. Both recipes produced good looking loaves when cooked in a bread pan. They tasted good and were even successful as school lunch material!
In the book it suggests that if you are using a higher protein flour of around 13%(which my spelt is), you need to increase the water by a 1/3 of a cup but I don't think this is necessary as both my attempts have been quite wet. I now also use less water than stated in the base recipes (for lower protein flour)as my freeform loaves were too wet and didn't hold their shape well.
I haven't found it necessary to adjust cooking time/temps but think that the wetness of the recipes may be related to regional differences in the flours used. Perhaps Aust flour doesn't need as much water as US flour - due to climate/milling/protein differences etc?
I've also found that when cooking in a standard bread pan (pan is the same size as the one used in the book), I've had to increase the amount of dough used by weight to half fill the pan and produce an acceptable finshed loaf that is sandwich size. This may be due to the fact that I'm using spelt but I've had to increase the quantity of dough used for both the recipes I have made. While this isn't a problem, it just means the recipes' yield as stated in the book is slightly out.
Hope this makes sense and helps,
Regards, Bronwyn.
That's great about the worm farm! I hope you can persuade them.
If they are that worried, get them to call the accreditation board.
Yesterday as trying to wash my hands under the hose I made the decision to look for a sink to go under one of the taps. Was thinking more like a bathroom or laundry sink, over a kitchen sink though I know I can get one of those free from my dad's stash.
I also love the kitchen sink idea. Wonder if I could persuade DH...only he'd want to wash paint brushes in it and then what to do with that water?
I have a breadmaker and measure everything carefully and a couple of weeks back every loaf wouldn't rise. The same recipe, same quantities. We thought the yeast may have lost its 'yeastiness' but now its working fine. Interestingly, about that time I read somewhere on the internet (wish I remembered where) a comment something like "of course the bread wouldn't rise because of the atmospheric pressure". Could it be true? Has any one else heard of such a thing?
Hi Barbara,
That's what I've been telling the preschool director, but she's still a bit dubious LOL.
Hi Olive,
Oh yes, I'll definitely let you know if I can fix it! My frisbees taste nice but don't look very 'artisan' LOL.
Hi Kel,
I've been drooling over the outside sink concept since I saw one on a vegie gardening show a few years ago - no more sinkfuls of sludge inside! Now I just have to convince DH he needs to mount it on the wall for me ASAP... We don't like to rush things around here LOL.
Hi Alecat,
Thank you, how lovely!
Hi Dani,
Oh thanks for the tips - that should help heaps :-)
Hi Bronwyn,
Oh thank you so much! That's all makes a lot of sense, I'm glad to hear that someone else has had to do some recipe fiddling too. Much appreciated :-)
Hi Melinda,
So do I LOL.
Hi belovedgoddess,
I'm still talking them around - I think they just don't know what to do with it and that they will kill the worms or something LOL.
Hi Joanne,
LOL, my DH will be banned from using my sink I think, just in case! Hmmm, not being an experienced breadmaker, I've not heard anything about pressure affecting yeast activity? Interesting!
Cheers, Julie
Your bread and my bread could be twins ;)
I think the solution is more dough. I'm going to double my recipe next time. A single batch of my dough rises to fill 3/4 of the pan, but I want it to rise up over the top of the pan. I've had better luck with sandwich buns.
I'll race you to the perfect loaf haha!
Post a Comment