Alright, so I finally made the no-knead bread. It was nice and crunchy (and a little burnt, my bad) but was still good. The dough was a little flavorless, but I dipped it in balsamic vinegar and olive oil anyway so not a problem.
Then I decided to try and make the Master Loaf from this book, but here's where I ran into problems. My loaves are tiny! Is this normal? I expected them to be about the size of a dinner plate, and maybe 3 inches high. Mine are probably closer to a 6 inch sphere. Photo with a navel orange is for scale. Still nice and crunchy though, and probably a good size for dinner for 2. It was SUPER super salty, so maybe next time no salt? Anyone else have problems like this? FYI, I used bread flour instead of the all purpose flour, and followed the book's instructions and decreased the amount of flour by 1/4 cup.
In more exciting news, Lucy finally got spayed. We have her running around in a t-shirt so that she doesn't lick her stitches. Short corgi legs! She keeps wiggling out through the neck hole.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Bread Help!
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8 comments:
I'd just take off a larger chunk of dough next time. I've found that smaller loaves are better anyway, because homemade bread does get tougher faster.
As for saltiness - did you use course (Kosher) salt? If you use table salt it will be saltier because it's more condensed in the measuring spoon. If I remember correctly the book only mentions this at the intros and specifically in the first recipe.
Hi Wendy, yes, I used Kosher salt. I don't think I have regular table salt at home. Maybe I just put too much salt in? I agree that the smaller loaf was nice, just surprising. Thanks!
Congrats on becoming/unbecoming a bitch, Lucy! Hehe. I'm glad she made it through unscathed.
That bread looks like the perfect size to put some soup in it! Mmmm...bread bowl... :)
It still looks good to me.
I ma glad Lucy made it through without complications. Surgery is no fun for cute pups. Caesar had complications and was cut open in 2places when he got neutered.
Do we have some kind of sisterly cosmic connection? I have been itching to make no-knead bread since Sunday. I'll give you the Cooks Illustrated recipe that I've been eyeing the next time I see you... it looks pretty good!
I started leaving you a comment with some thoughts on bread baking but it just got too long. So instead I just posted a bunch of things about it on my blog.
First saw that picture of Lucy on flickr. Was wondering why she had a t-shirt on...glad to hear she's doing alright.
Sorry, no advice on bread-making here (leave it to flanthrower). :P
I hope Lucy isn't licking her stitches! We tried everything and Bryson was determined to get at it, and eventually got it all infected. Maybe it's a nasty boy thing. Just look at it and make sure it's not red. She should be all fine in no time!
P.S. Love the new banner!
I'd have said the same thing Wendy said...I have trouble making myself pull up enough dough for a good size loaf. I didn't have the salt issue, so I'd decrease. I found out my oven is much hotter than the dial states making these.
The smaller loaf is actually quite nice since you get fresh bread everyday!
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