Bread Follow-Up

I got to thinking, and it’s been helpful. Having done a barely passable job on my first attempt at wheat bread, what could I be doing differently?

Well, understanding that I own a convection oven, and that convection ovens run hotter than conventional ovens helps. I also decided maybe a bit more brown sugar for sweetness and oil (olive this time instead of canola) for moisture would be an interesting try. And I decided too to bake it in a the single, decent bread-pan as opposed to the foil pans I found in the cupboard after they sat there for 10 years. One bigger loaf sounded like a great idea, actually.

So yesterday early evening I decided to go ahead and give it a go. All went quite well actually, and I had a pretty good loaf to go into the oven at about 8. Knowing that I had to cover it with foil about 20 minutes in to keep from burning the top, I set a timer and went to lie in my bed listening to an audiobook. A bit later, Micha called out to me to ask if I’d gone to the market to get her check card (she left it there when she’d gone earlier to get some things for dinner). I popped right up and said “no,” then went to check the bread. The timer showed about 2 minutes left on a 45-minute bake, but that couldn’t be right. I looked at the timer I’d set on the phone and it still said “19…something.”

I had fallen asleep.

And I’d set the timer for 20 hours and not 20 minutes.

So yeah, the top got pretty crispy, and I made a bit of a mess of it trying to “fix” that situation (and thus, no pictures). But in the end, the bottom 7/8 of the loaf turned out pretty good. I just had a thick slice of it with peanut butter and honey and thought it was much better.

But I know I can improve it. For one thing, I never understood what “punching it down” after the first rise really meant. I thought, “pop it a few times to knock out some of the air.” Turns out, it’s pretty much supposed to knock out all of the air. So there’s that. And there are a couple of other things I might try next time. I’m not using strong flour, although all-purpose should be alright. But the market right across the street has strong flour, so I’ll pick that up for the next loaf. And I’ll try honey instead of the brown sugar the recipe calls for (any hints on how to use honey in bread?). I might graduate to nuts and grains eventually. I’m learning yet, and each time I can try something a bit different.

And then it’s off to other tries. I’ve ordered some rye flour online (none at the commissary here), and might give a rye and ale bread a go next. And then there’s plain-old white. I checked out Paul Hollywood’s Bread book and he has a Bloomer recipe right up front that should be easy enough to try.

In reality, I’m really laying off the bread in my diet. But there’s something quite satisfying about making it, and if I can get any good at it, maybe I can make it to share. We’ll see how it goes…