Anna N

No seeds.

Lettuce and tomato sandwich with Hellmann’s mayonnaise on homemade potato bread. Bread made using a recipe from the new Modernist Bread.

So here are the crumb shots of the buns and the bread. It is a lovely bread and I had a sandwich for my dinner tonight using it. I may have to stop baking for a few days as my freezer is full and I can only eat so much.

Text from my son-in-law after he picked up the date squares. Much more quality control and there will be nothing left to take to the office.

No kale with that quinoa? They are slipping up.

I just checked the index. There is an entry for homing pigeons but nothing for homogenizer.

Damn. You must be close to Seattle by now.

Date squares. Don’t judge. They are delicious. Quality control evidence in bottom left corner.

I can say that the recipes seem to be sturdy and resilient and even I can’t seem to have an epic fail. I certainly thought I had one this morning. This is the potato bread using the traditional recipe. I did not have the special SAF Gold yeast (osmotolerant) which is recommended for breads that are sweetened. But a little research suggested that increasing the amount of standard instant yeast by 30% would also work. I also didn’t have any of the recommended pans for this particular bread. One of the recommended ones was the 13 x 4 x 4 pullman pan. I had the 9 x 4 x 4 and with my limited math abilities determined that I would have to reduce the dough by 30%. I had no intentions of reducing the ingredients — that would surely lead to disaster. But the biggest challenge of all was that even though I carefully weighed all ingredients, after mixing for five minutes I had a batter not a dough. I started to add flour and it required more than 6 additional tablespoons and even then I ended up tipping the mixing bowl contents onto the counter and doing some hand kneading. I opted to use 680 g of the dough to make a loaf and formed the remaining dough into three buns. My slashing skills continue to need improvement. I will examine the crumb once it has cooled down and post a photograph. One of the limitations I find of their kitchen manual is that it is so abbreviated us to be almost unusable At times. One needs to refer back to the books themselves or to other tables in the kitchen manual. The recipe in the kitchen manual gives the mixing time of from 12 to 17 minutes but if you refer back to the appropriate page in Volume 4 there are much more precise instructions. I find myself making many penciled notes in the kitchen manual.

So for those who are interested here’s the Coles Notes version of the bread machine chapter in Modernist Bread. Even the best bread machine cannot compete with bread made in a stand mixer and baked in an oven. Two major drawbacks are that it is not powerful enough to mix properly nor hot enough to bake properly. But then there’s the claim that they have hacked the machine (they don’t actually hack any machine they just adapt to its limitations) to get a much better result including the possibility of 100% rye and a braided challah (this is braided by hand and baked in the machine). They recognize the appeal of the machine on a variety of levels and say that 8% of American households own a bread machine and sales of flour and yeast suggest many of them are being used. And so they have made it possible to use most of their master recipes in the bread machine in one form or another. They make note of some of the major shortcomings and offer solutions such as shaping by hand but baking in the machine They also suggest looking in thrift stores for bread machines. The bottom line seems to be that you can get decent results but you’ll need more hands-on time which may will negate the reason that you bought the machine in the first place. They also note that most machine made breads can be improved with the addition of vital wheat gluten. They make no machine recommendation that I could find. All of the photographs of bread they have created in a bread machine display those very peculiar shapes unique to each machine. That’s my summary. I hope anyone who has the books and disagrees with it will chime in here.

Can you ask for some cheese and crackers?

I will do my best to read through that section later today and try and answer your questions.

Are they really beans on your breakfast? Are you trying to clear space around you on the plane?

First attempt at bread from the just-released Modernist Bread, rillettes from France (here) and some tiny gherkins. What a way to start the day.

Was too tired last evening to cut into it but I am enjoying it for breakfast this morning.

Not very much can beat fresh pickerel. I am insanely jealous.

No series of pictures of the process but I am just astounded at the finished product. Absolutely nothing went according to plan. It spent many hours in the refrigerator after I had incorporated the poolish and the yeast and salt. It got only two folds because I was afraid that I would be too tired to bake it if I waited any longer. It had to be done in a Dutch oven despite the warnings. It stuck somewhat to the banneton but I consider it a huge success. Will have to wait to look at the crumb for a while yet.

Poor photograph but I bought some radishes tonight and they came with greens that were still vibrant. I quickly sautéed them in some garlic oil and topped them with some leftover rotisserie chicken.

As soon as I get the airfare together and can make it to your house.

How did you like it?

Nice. I am quite concerned about the oven temperatures and the recommended baking time. Mine is proofing right now but life got in the way of following times exactly so it spent many hours in the fridge.

The lady who lunches with me is home for just three days after returning from Paris and before flying off to Seattle! As she attempts to minimize the effects of jet lag, today was a day when protein was required for lunch. We spotted a new Nandos in Burlington and decided that it would serve our purpose. 1/4 Chicken dark meat with lime and mango sauce and a Caesar salad for Kerry. The same cut of chicken for me but with a lemon and herb sauce and I opted for some sautéed spinach as a side.

I suspect the best we can do is agree to disagree. I hope it remains a world that can accommodate traditionalists as well as modernists.

Not that I’ve seen so far but there’s an awful lot of reading matter here and I’ve only scratched the surface.

Just thought it was worthwhile to mention that the just released Modernist Bread has a good section on bread machines and provides recipes for quite a number of breads. Have not really dug into the section yet but I thought it worth mentioning. Edited to add: please let’s not take this off topic. If you have questions please start another topic.