Do You Have a Recipe You Are Wanting to Make?
Marilyn Sue McClintock
4 years ago
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Do you have a favorite recipe book for bread making?
Comments (7)no need to really get a book - it's really hard to screw up bread. First thing you should do, if you're really interested, is make some w/out the instant yeast. Just set some water and flour out (I use stone ground whole wheat), and you'll have something bubbling in a few days. You can throw in some fresh apple peel or something - not a supermarket apple, something from a green market. The idea is to get some yeast growing in there. It settles on everything, so you'll have some in the flour, some on the apple, and some hanging around in the air. Once you see some bubbles, which can take 4-5 days, you have a yeast. Whether it's good or not, you won't know until you use it. I have 3 of them right now - one tastes really good but one works much faster. Then you can make bread with those - it's "sourdough" bread, meaning it wasn't made with a commercial yeast. Remember - bread yeast is like anything else - it has been developed to have certain characteristics. So you get something that is reliable and relatively quick, but lacks flavor. The wild, or feral, yeasts provide much more complex flavors. In part that is because they work in harmony with bacteria, which are also floating around. Those bacteria, which are similar to those in yogurt, also eat the sugars in the flour and help to develop those really nice complex flavors in the bread. Just keep a little of the flour/water mix aside, add more of both, and keep the starter dough going. As far as time - this is why your commercial yeast was developed. With one of my yeasts, if I knead the dough in the morning, it won't rise until the next day. So basically, I put it in the fridge for rising. Those long, slow, rises do help the flavoring. Then, when you're done messing around with that, you can start adding different things. Fats, whether they be in the form of oils or something else like butter, will make your bread have a more tender crumb and will also help with the shelf-life. The bread will not be as dry and will last a few days longer. You can incorporate seasonings - be careful with salts because they'll kill your yeast, but you can add any kind of herb you like, or a combination. Ditto spices. Or fruits. Or you can use fruit juice for part of your liquid. Or something like ricotta cheese. Or eggs. Or different flours and/or grains - rye, spelt, rice, oats, etc. Just be aware that the texture of your bread will be VERY different - nothing has the gluten that wheat does. You're already having fun - so just have some more. Incidentally, this is a good thing to do in the winter when you really can't work in the garden. I don't know how any of these will work in a machine - I've never used one. But I've been making bread and doughs pretty much once or twice a week for about 30 years, and it's quite therapeutic. Have fun!...See MoreWhen you have a great recipe..why do you bother!!!
Comments (24)The worst is when you mess with a recipe and the result is FANTASTIC...but then you can't remember exactly what it was that you did. :( I messed up making lemon bars once. This time, it wasn't on purpose. There were two lemon bar recipes in the book, one on each page. One was for traditional lemon bars, the other for a lemon-cheesecake type of bar. I started making one, and ended up finishing the other...no, I really don't know how I did it that...and the resulting bars were absolutely delicious. Never been able to make them again....See MoreDo you 'adjust' recipes to use what you have on hand?
Comments (24)I am so glad to know that there are so many people here who "play" like I do when cooking. My husband and I have a running joke...if he comments that something I made is especially good, I tell him to enjoy it because it will likely never be exactly the same again! Of course, he's a very good husband, who knows what to say, and tells me that it's o.k. if it never comes out the same again, as it will just be a different kind of delicious. Honestly, I joked in a prior post about it being a birth defect, but I do wonder if it's something genetic. My mother, bless her heart, was a perfectly horrid cook, and her mother was possibly worse. To be fair, they neither of them particularly liked to cook, but did it anyway to feed their families. When I think how hard it would be to do something every day, several times a day, that I didn't like doing, I can't blame them. I made my first "experimental" dish when I was about 6 years old. I decided to make desert for the family, and came up with "peanut butter soup with strawberries". Of course, I hadn't the technical skills to produce what I had in mind, which was sort of a peanut butter milk shake of sorts with chunks of strawberries...so what I ended up with was a bowl of milk with lumps of peanut butter and sliced strawberries in it. Oh well, live and learn! I still think that a peanut butter milkshake with chunks of strawberries in it would be pretty good, but I've never tried to make it again....See MoreRECIPE: Do you have a favorite latke recipe?
Comments (6)I use matzah meal, I've never made them with flour. I use the food processor these days. I seem to lose too much of my knuckle when I grate them by hand. I make a ton and then freeze them and bake them, but their the best right from the frying pan! Potato Latkes 6 medium Idaho potatoes 2 medium yellow onions 2 large eggs 1/4 cup matzoh meal, or 3 tablespoons all-purpose, unbleached flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Chicken fat, or vegetable oil, for frying Applesauce Sour cream Peel potatoes and place in cold water. Using a box grater, grate potatoes and onions into large bowl. Transfer potato-and-onion mixture to a colander set over a bowl, and squeeze out excess moisture. Return mixture to bowl. In separate bowl, combine eggs, matzo meal or flour, and salt and pepper, to taste. Combine all ingredients, adding more matzo meal if mixture is too wet. In large skillet, heat 1/2-inch oil (or chicken fat) over medium-high heat. Drop tablespoon or serving spoon-size portions of mixture into hot oil, and press down with spoon to flatten. Fry until brown and crispy on edges; turn until golden brown on each side, cooking 3 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels to drain. Serve with applesauce or sour cream....See MoreMarilyn Sue McClintock
4 years agoMarilyn Sue McClintock
4 years agoAnnie Deighnaugh
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoMarilyn Sue McClintock thanked Annie Deighnaughjoann_fl
4 years agoWalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
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