Thursday Weekend '21
Jul. 22nd, 2021 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Thursday morning, made breakfast and got started on the wheat bread dough.
I used the AP flour that I got from Pennsylvania, grown and milled there.
I used red wheat flour, but also subbed in some white wheat flour just to use it up.
In the vein of making this a "Pennsylvania loaf", I also used dark buckwheat honey from Draper's, an apiary in the middle of nowhere PA. And instead of the plain oil called for in the recipe, I decided to try out the walnut oil that I got for my next challah loaf. I also tried adding some "dough enhancers", vital wheat gluten and a small amount of vinegar. Both of these are supposed to help the shelf life and enhance the texture of the finished bread.
After letting the yeast come alive in some warm water, I mixed everything together. The walnut oil is already making this dough smell incredibly fragrant. Here's the dough after mixing and resting to let the flour absorb the water.
Here's the dough post-kneading. I use flour for half the knead time, then switch to oil in order to retain moisture.
Then the dough had to rest and rise for 90 minutes, during which time I cleaned up, ate breakfast, and got some trombone practice in.
Before and after rising.
Then I shaped the dough, which I forgot to take pictures of and anyway my hands were messy. I flattened it out and then rolled it up into a log and then a loaf shape, basically, and put it in a loaf pan where it went to rise for another hour or so.
Then I gave it an egg wash. I noticed a lot of larger bubbles on the surface, so either I let it overproof a little or I shouldn't have proofed it in the microwave as it might have been too hot and the yeast too active. Anyway it turned out all right, just the egg wash was kinda runny and made a weird "lip" around the edge of the bread cap. Kinda looks like a mushroom, or the head of one of those rounded screws.
The crumb is good, and it's definitely more moist than other loaves I've made. The flavor was very nice, slightly nutty and sweet with the hearty flavor of the whole wheat flour.
This was a variation on the "Kindergarten Honey Wheat" recipe in my bread lesson book. I think next time I'd like to try someone else's recipe, maybe King Arthur's, specifically for sandwich wheat bread. But this was fun, it was good to see that I can make so many changes and still come out with a really delicious loaf of bread :)
Once the bread was done I drove out to Whole Paycheck to get our steaks, fancy cheese, etc.
The drive was terrible because the tourists are back, so there were accidents everywhere and a six-car pileup at the I-drive exit. Idiots. I left around 2:15-2:30 and didn't get home until 4pm. Waste of my day. But this time at least it's worth it, so I can make lovely steaks for us tomorrow!
I came home to find this waiting for me on the doorstep:
This little tableau was playing out between a sphinx moth and a black racer snake. I didn't realize until later that I'd probably interrupted the snake's hunting. Sorry little brother.
Two packages had arrived for me while I was gone, one of which was a viral TikTok thing, an articulated color-changing 3D-printed slug!
The left pic is when the slug is warm (pink) and the right is when it's cold (purple).
The person who makes these normally makes soaps to sell out of their home, but printed a few of these for fun and ended up going viral over them. So now they have thousands of orders, and are probably having trouble keeping up! Can you imagine what that must be like? I can't! I had to wait almost three months for this believe it or not.
Yes, it's just a stupid gimmick toy, billed as an ASMR or fidget toy for adults.
I bought it with the intention of bringing it to work, and to share with Jameson. Just for fun, kind of like the stupid "raw egg" stress balls I bought us a while ago. Sometimes little things help you get through the day. My office is VERY cold because of all the computers, so I thought it would be fun to see the slug turn purple indoors and pink when I go for my walks at lunch. It's also nice to play with and makes a fun noise from all the parts sliding over each other. Anyway. Articulated slug. I enjoy it.
We ordered pizza for dinner and I made wings in the air fryer. Watched an episode of Cobra Kai, then I went to finish practicing trombone while Jameson had a D&D session with his friends. When tromboning was done I switched to steno practice, then it was chill time. It's really nice to have a whole day off tomorrow too.
I used the AP flour that I got from Pennsylvania, grown and milled there.
I used red wheat flour, but also subbed in some white wheat flour just to use it up.
In the vein of making this a "Pennsylvania loaf", I also used dark buckwheat honey from Draper's, an apiary in the middle of nowhere PA. And instead of the plain oil called for in the recipe, I decided to try out the walnut oil that I got for my next challah loaf. I also tried adding some "dough enhancers", vital wheat gluten and a small amount of vinegar. Both of these are supposed to help the shelf life and enhance the texture of the finished bread.
After letting the yeast come alive in some warm water, I mixed everything together. The walnut oil is already making this dough smell incredibly fragrant. Here's the dough after mixing and resting to let the flour absorb the water.
Here's the dough post-kneading. I use flour for half the knead time, then switch to oil in order to retain moisture.
Then the dough had to rest and rise for 90 minutes, during which time I cleaned up, ate breakfast, and got some trombone practice in.
Before and after rising.
Then I shaped the dough, which I forgot to take pictures of and anyway my hands were messy. I flattened it out and then rolled it up into a log and then a loaf shape, basically, and put it in a loaf pan where it went to rise for another hour or so.
Then I gave it an egg wash. I noticed a lot of larger bubbles on the surface, so either I let it overproof a little or I shouldn't have proofed it in the microwave as it might have been too hot and the yeast too active. Anyway it turned out all right, just the egg wash was kinda runny and made a weird "lip" around the edge of the bread cap. Kinda looks like a mushroom, or the head of one of those rounded screws.
The crumb is good, and it's definitely more moist than other loaves I've made. The flavor was very nice, slightly nutty and sweet with the hearty flavor of the whole wheat flour.
This was a variation on the "Kindergarten Honey Wheat" recipe in my bread lesson book. I think next time I'd like to try someone else's recipe, maybe King Arthur's, specifically for sandwich wheat bread. But this was fun, it was good to see that I can make so many changes and still come out with a really delicious loaf of bread :)
Once the bread was done I drove out to Whole Paycheck to get our steaks, fancy cheese, etc.
The drive was terrible because the tourists are back, so there were accidents everywhere and a six-car pileup at the I-drive exit. Idiots. I left around 2:15-2:30 and didn't get home until 4pm. Waste of my day. But this time at least it's worth it, so I can make lovely steaks for us tomorrow!
I came home to find this waiting for me on the doorstep:
https://instagram.com/p/CRpP40ZnHeV
This little tableau was playing out between a sphinx moth and a black racer snake. I didn't realize until later that I'd probably interrupted the snake's hunting. Sorry little brother.
Two packages had arrived for me while I was gone, one of which was a viral TikTok thing, an articulated color-changing 3D-printed slug!
The left pic is when the slug is warm (pink) and the right is when it's cold (purple).
The person who makes these normally makes soaps to sell out of their home, but printed a few of these for fun and ended up going viral over them. So now they have thousands of orders, and are probably having trouble keeping up! Can you imagine what that must be like? I can't! I had to wait almost three months for this believe it or not.
Yes, it's just a stupid gimmick toy, billed as an ASMR or fidget toy for adults.
I bought it with the intention of bringing it to work, and to share with Jameson. Just for fun, kind of like the stupid "raw egg" stress balls I bought us a while ago. Sometimes little things help you get through the day. My office is VERY cold because of all the computers, so I thought it would be fun to see the slug turn purple indoors and pink when I go for my walks at lunch. It's also nice to play with and makes a fun noise from all the parts sliding over each other. Anyway. Articulated slug. I enjoy it.
We ordered pizza for dinner and I made wings in the air fryer. Watched an episode of Cobra Kai, then I went to finish practicing trombone while Jameson had a D&D session with his friends. When tromboning was done I switched to steno practice, then it was chill time. It's really nice to have a whole day off tomorrow too.
