Wndy

Mmm ethiopian food! I agree, that's got to be one of the most challenging foods to consume in a theatre--and hide too, boy is it smelly! I don't have many stories to tell, although at home in Seattle, I always bring water with me whenever I go shopping (and whenever I see a movie, I usually have been shopping) so I unconsciously bring in water to the theatre... I guess that is sneaking stuff in! We have this great bakery at the Market... Le Panier or something like that, which sells all shapes and sizes of french bread. I went to see 'Fellowship of the Ring' at the Cinerama (Paul Allen's baby), and the friend I went with has this tradition of bringing a FULL SIZE baguette to movies, and passing it down the row of movie-goers (we went in a large group to see LOTR). Granted, it's great bread, but I was still quite shocked at the sight of it being smuggled into the theatre! For those of you interested in theatre etiquette, you might want to check out the movie "A Guy Named Joe" for some laughs. It's a WWII-era flick, but there is a short before the main film starts, and it's about how to dress and behave at a movie theatre. It's a bit slapstick, and terrible funny... I recommend it! I can't imagine someone bringing in a sloppy sandwich in the 1940's, my how times have changed!

Thank you! I did take some photos of the final product, but unfortunately I'm still in the automatic camera age, so it will be some time before the roll is done, the photos developed and scanned, unfortunately. I ate one of the buns with this tikka masala sauce I bought from the store... so far I haven't had a second. I really don't like whole wheat... ...why did I buy whole wheat flour? impusle buy? I think so...

Well, I'm a definite amateur, but I decided to give it a shot. I chose Tepee's dough recipe, with some alterations: For her starter, I just used one packet of active dry yeast since it looked to be about 2 tsps. I had my water at 104F, but I think it cooled down a bit before the yeast was added. I used just shy of 1/2 cup of white sugar, but the real change was the flour. I didn't have any cake flour on hand, but pastry is closer than all-purpose (I think I read somewhere that cake is 5-8% protein, pastry is under 8-9%, all purpose 9-12%, and bread flour 12-13%) so I chose that. However, the pastry flour I have is this crazy whole wheat stuff, so, my bao may end in disaster! Makes for an exciting night though. Oh! I just looked at the recipe again, and my bao is going to be very exciting! When I read the starter list I just assumed it was all put together, and I thought this was rather different than how I make my pizza dough. Well, I read it wrong, apparently the 1.5 cups of flour go in after the 15 minutes of yeast activation.... and the 2 cups go in after one hour of waiting. Instead, I mixed 1.5 cups into the yeast in the beginning, and the last 2 cups into it pre-rising. So, who knows what is going to happen. ... A scant hour has passed (OK, 50 minutes). My dough looks like it has tripled in size! I have a very warm kitchen, and I left the bowl on my gas stove which is always warm from the pilot light. My thermometer is reading about 90-95F on the stovetop...the middle of my dough is about 92F. I also covered the bowl with a damp cloth... Anyhow, my dough is oatmeal in color, with a grainy look to it due to the whole wheat. Minus the flour, I followed the directions. The only difference is I didn't use shortening since I don't have a bread hook. I just mixed it with my hands (the wooden spoon didn't work well)--very sticky! Also, although it seemed to have tripled in size before I touched it, it now seems less than doubled after all my kneading. It smells very wholesome... I think I might not put any filling in the bao since I have no clue what it will taste like with the whole wheat. ... Well, I had to run to work at 5:30 this morning so I didn't have time to finish my writing. Let me pick up where I left off... I let the dough sit for one more hour, and again it had tripled in size. I gave it a gentle tap and the thing deflated in mere seconds. I wonder why it balloons so much? My pizza/flatbread dough does not do this. Anyhow, I began to pick up the dough and my goodness, how it stuck to the sides! This dough was reminiscent of a human's neural networks: so many strands! It's as if I was hollowing out a pumpkin, with its flesh so stringy... that's what this dough was like. It was a rather interesting sight. Finally managing to remove the dough from the bowl, I placed it on a floured board (all purpose flour this time--I was too lazy to get the pastry flour out again). I wasn't quite sure how I was going to form these buns without any filling (I didn't want to risk a filling on potentially inedible buns). At first I made a long roll, similar to the previous photos of forming bao. I cut it into 9 different dough balls, and then I made two pinches in the dough, gathering up all four sides (four sides to a circle? nonsense!) to make a little plus sign in the middle. I then let them rest for 30 minutes on parchment paper, and prepared the steamer by adding some water to my wok. After the time was up, and my water was boiling, I moved my bao to the wok. At this point the bao dough was very very flat... it had spread out miserably. I tried to fix a few of them, and prayed for the rest as I placed the bamboo top on the steamer. I let them steam over boiling water for 12 minutes, then I removed them from the heat and discovered that the bao was HUGE! Ok, not enormous, but I wasn't expecting it to grow. They had perhaps nearly doubled in size... I didn't realize this would happen, and had not put an adequate amount of parchment paper down. When I removed the buns, some of the dough remained stuck to the bamboo. That's going to be real fun to clean... The last part consists of the tasting (I had to at least try them before I left for work!), and I must say, they are indeed edible! I was surprised... they have that same texture I associate with downtown bao (mae sum pastry in the Market, for those of you from Seattle), and yet a distinctive whole wheat taste. At the moment I am finishing one bun... this one I sliced in the middle, and filled the crevice with tikka masala that comes out of a jar (more tomato-y and less creamy than the restaurant variety), and "nuked" for 20 seconds. It's really not all that bad. No where near the ballpark of real bao, but for whole wheat it's pretty good. I generally steer clear of whole wheat products. I imagine if it had a really delicious filling, like char siu, it would be even better. I'd recommend the whole wheat version to anyone who is trying to eat a bit more healthy... also: it's VERY filling! p.s. this is my first post!