5:3, plus some yeast and salt.
Mar. 4th, 2012 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mangosteenIn the continuing effort to transcend the stereotypical culinary roles of my gender (breakfast foods and grilling), I've decided to learn how to bake things.
1. I can safely say that I have an aptitude for baking. There's something about the precision and preparatory experimentation* that appeals. You get the proportions right, put them in in the right order, make sure the transformations happen in the right way, and then add heat and wait.
Things baked so far, a slightly incomplete list:
- Pretzel rolls
- Bread boules (lean dough, white and wheat)
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough**
- Beer Bread
- Cream Puffs***
Next come more interesting breads (have to figure out a starter, though), interesting cream-puff structures, and probably some cakes. Point is, I've never had this much fun in the kitchen.
There's another thing, though.
2. Read the book "Ratio", by Michael Ruhlman.
Find it, read it. No, really. This is the book that helped me figure out how to bake. It goes into the fundamental ingredient ratios for various kinds of food (e.g. bread = 5 parts flour to 3 parts water, (plus some yeast and salt)). It also goes into why each ratio matters, the effects of varying it, and next steps.
3. I will admit that all of this is aided by having a "Why Do I Have a 1 Horsepower Motor In My Kitchen" Kitchenaid mixer. It's a recent acquisition, and totally worth it. I didn't know that "enough torque to knead two loaves worth of bread dough" was a requirement, but clearly it was.
4. There's something very essential about baking, and kneading dough, and creating food from ingredients. Now that I'm baking on a regular basis, it feels like it's one of the hidden requirements for being useful in the world.
More on baking and essentialism later. This is clearly something I need to poke at more.
But trust me on reading Ratio.
* Yes. Kitchen scale *and* lab notebook. Why do you ask?
** 15 minutes from "I'll make some chocolate chip cookie dough" to "Okay, I'm not going to eat 2 lbs. of chocolate chip cookie dough. Now what?"
*** Okay. Cream Puffs are both cooked and baked. They're probably the best bang for the buck in terms of impressing people, though.****
**** I feel confident in saying that no one gets through making their first batch of choux paste without doing something that will later be referred to as "The Choux Paste Incident"
1. I can safely say that I have an aptitude for baking. There's something about the precision and preparatory experimentation* that appeals. You get the proportions right, put them in in the right order, make sure the transformations happen in the right way, and then add heat and wait.
Things baked so far, a slightly incomplete list:
- Pretzel rolls
- Bread boules (lean dough, white and wheat)
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough**
- Beer Bread
- Cream Puffs***
Next come more interesting breads (have to figure out a starter, though), interesting cream-puff structures, and probably some cakes. Point is, I've never had this much fun in the kitchen.
There's another thing, though.
2. Read the book "Ratio", by Michael Ruhlman.
Find it, read it. No, really. This is the book that helped me figure out how to bake. It goes into the fundamental ingredient ratios for various kinds of food (e.g. bread = 5 parts flour to 3 parts water, (plus some yeast and salt)). It also goes into why each ratio matters, the effects of varying it, and next steps. 3. I will admit that all of this is aided by having a "Why Do I Have a 1 Horsepower Motor In My Kitchen" Kitchenaid mixer. It's a recent acquisition, and totally worth it. I didn't know that "enough torque to knead two loaves worth of bread dough" was a requirement, but clearly it was.
4. There's something very essential about baking, and kneading dough, and creating food from ingredients. Now that I'm baking on a regular basis, it feels like it's one of the hidden requirements for being useful in the world.
More on baking and essentialism later. This is clearly something I need to poke at more.
But trust me on reading Ratio.
* Yes. Kitchen scale *and* lab notebook. Why do you ask?
** 15 minutes from "I'll make some chocolate chip cookie dough" to "Okay, I'm not going to eat 2 lbs. of chocolate chip cookie dough. Now what?"
*** Okay. Cream Puffs are both cooked and baked. They're probably the best bang for the buck in terms of impressing people, though.****
**** I feel confident in saying that no one gets through making their first batch of choux paste without doing something that will later be referred to as "The Choux Paste Incident"
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 01:52 pm (UTC)Yea, it is awesome. :)
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Date: 2012-03-04 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 06:14 pm (UTC)but on topic; it's all just Chemistry, edible, tasty Chemistry...
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Date: 2012-03-04 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 02:01 pm (UTC)My favorite bread-like thing to bake is waffles. It's about the only bread-like thing I do on anything like a regular basis, because everything else takes so much time.
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Date: 2012-03-04 02:48 pm (UTC)Now that you've made cream puffs, try making TOTORO CREAM PUFFS. :)
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Date: 2012-03-04 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 02:01 pm (UTC)OTOH, if you think you have a use for freshly-baked cookies as-needed, a batch can keep a good long time. And fridge is a distinct improvement over scooped-and-frozen. THAT, I can swear to.
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Date: 2012-03-04 03:05 pm (UTC)On the other hand, we do not speak of the First Meringue.
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Date: 2012-03-04 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 07:23 pm (UTC)Hooray baking!
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Date: 2012-03-04 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 02:36 am (UTC)::ahem::
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Date: 2012-03-05 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 02:37 am (UTC)And hooray for yummy bread. I'm sure that it was gratifying to see how quickly it disappeared.
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Date: 2012-03-05 06:19 pm (UTC)If I screw up while making something on a stove top, I just review what can compensate and toss it in. If I screw up a loaf of bread, it's too late. Thus I was amazed when my turkey came out beautifully on the first try -- and then i realized I'd been studying other people's turkey recipes for years.
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Date: 2012-03-05 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 08:44 pm (UTC)Mix whole grain flour and water. Wait. Replace some of the old stuff with new stuff every day or two. The flour comes with the appropriate yeast, and the chemistry is such that culturing the good stuff is basically inevitable.
I basically followed these:
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/13/raising-a-starter/
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/29/maintain-starter/
no subject
Date: 2012-03-06 02:19 am (UTC)