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I Did Nothing
May. 14th, 2021 09:41 pmHooray for the weekend.
I woke up feeling stressed again. It's a feeling like I'm not doing enough, and/or like I have too much to do.
In this annoyed mood I got started on the brown sugar spice oatmeal bread.
Everything went fine until it was time to incorporate the cooked oats, cinnamon and sugar. The dough was too tight for these ingredients to incorporate properly, so I ended up with a big mess of ropey dough and oats just everywhere. Irritated, I dumped it in my rising bowl and left it alone for 90 minutes, during which time I went to get a car wash, vacuumed the car, and visited our gym to see what their policies are on mask-wearing, cleaning, etc. Our gym is big with high ceilings and lots of floor space, so I think what they're doing is acceptable (masks optional, everyone gets their own cleaning bottle and towel, they clean extra and use UV lights on stuff, reduced class sizes, etc). I'll probably wait until after my family visit in June, but after that it's back to the gym, twice a week minimum.
After that I stopped at Lowe's for cowpea seeds since it's getting too hot for much else to grow, then came home to throw them in the dirt and check on the bread. The dough was a lot more loose, having risen a bit, so I worked the rest of the oats and brown sugar in and it went a little better. I left the dough to rise for the remainder of the time, not sure if having interrupted the rise will affect the finished loaf.
After lunch I dumped the dough out to shape it and it's very wet, a lot of extra moisture from those oats. Somehow I manhandled it into a loaf pan where it rose for another hour or so. During that time Jameson played virtual games with his friends, and I tried to relax with some stupid youtube videos, listening to the thunder outside and hoping it would rain (in Florida, thunder does NOT always mean it's going to rain.)
It did rain, and the rain was wonderful and sorely needed.
My bread was a disaster. It partially deflated, and when I cut it open it was heavy and still too wet inside.
I'd thought I did everything "right" except for incorporating the oats poorly, so figured they hadn't distributed well and had caused pockets of density.
What ACTUALLY happened, as I found out from author Bonnie O'Hara herself, is that I measured the oats DRY.
Reading her descriptive paragraph (which I had done but without, like, actually THINKING about what I was reading), she explains that this bread came about in an attempt to use up PRE-COOKED oatmeal that she had made for her family for the week. In other words, the oats need to be weighted AFTER cooking.
*headdesk*
I'm sure this seems obvious, but to me it was not so obvious while reading the instructions (before having my morning coffee I should note).
The other thing is how difficult it was to incorporate the oats as a separate thing from the main dough.
After doing some research online, it seems that most "leftover oatmeal bread" recipes have you include the oats in the initial dough-mixing process. My plan now is to weigh the COOKED oats, add them along with all of the other dough ingredients, and then add the brown sugar and cinnamon during the kneading process. Hopefully that'll solve that problem.
After that disappointment I had steno class, which went as well as it could. Then I made the cooked oats so they'll be ready for tomorrow, and chilled for a few hours while Jameson played the new Resident Evil game.
( Read more... )
I woke up feeling stressed again. It's a feeling like I'm not doing enough, and/or like I have too much to do.
In this annoyed mood I got started on the brown sugar spice oatmeal bread.
Everything went fine until it was time to incorporate the cooked oats, cinnamon and sugar. The dough was too tight for these ingredients to incorporate properly, so I ended up with a big mess of ropey dough and oats just everywhere. Irritated, I dumped it in my rising bowl and left it alone for 90 minutes, during which time I went to get a car wash, vacuumed the car, and visited our gym to see what their policies are on mask-wearing, cleaning, etc. Our gym is big with high ceilings and lots of floor space, so I think what they're doing is acceptable (masks optional, everyone gets their own cleaning bottle and towel, they clean extra and use UV lights on stuff, reduced class sizes, etc). I'll probably wait until after my family visit in June, but after that it's back to the gym, twice a week minimum.
After that I stopped at Lowe's for cowpea seeds since it's getting too hot for much else to grow, then came home to throw them in the dirt and check on the bread. The dough was a lot more loose, having risen a bit, so I worked the rest of the oats and brown sugar in and it went a little better. I left the dough to rise for the remainder of the time, not sure if having interrupted the rise will affect the finished loaf.
After lunch I dumped the dough out to shape it and it's very wet, a lot of extra moisture from those oats. Somehow I manhandled it into a loaf pan where it rose for another hour or so. During that time Jameson played virtual games with his friends, and I tried to relax with some stupid youtube videos, listening to the thunder outside and hoping it would rain (in Florida, thunder does NOT always mean it's going to rain.)
It did rain, and the rain was wonderful and sorely needed.
My bread was a disaster. It partially deflated, and when I cut it open it was heavy and still too wet inside.
I'd thought I did everything "right" except for incorporating the oats poorly, so figured they hadn't distributed well and had caused pockets of density.
What ACTUALLY happened, as I found out from author Bonnie O'Hara herself, is that I measured the oats DRY.
Reading her descriptive paragraph (which I had done but without, like, actually THINKING about what I was reading), she explains that this bread came about in an attempt to use up PRE-COOKED oatmeal that she had made for her family for the week. In other words, the oats need to be weighted AFTER cooking.
*headdesk*
I'm sure this seems obvious, but to me it was not so obvious while reading the instructions (before having my morning coffee I should note).
The other thing is how difficult it was to incorporate the oats as a separate thing from the main dough.
After doing some research online, it seems that most "leftover oatmeal bread" recipes have you include the oats in the initial dough-mixing process. My plan now is to weigh the COOKED oats, add them along with all of the other dough ingredients, and then add the brown sugar and cinnamon during the kneading process. Hopefully that'll solve that problem.
After that disappointment I had steno class, which went as well as it could. Then I made the cooked oats so they'll be ready for tomorrow, and chilled for a few hours while Jameson played the new Resident Evil game.
( Read more... )
