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June 13, 2007

Baking - Beware

For all of you who are being good and watching what you eat, you might not want to stop here today (although it's just bread ... and cookies). I've been baking. Be surprise there. We ran out of bread the other day and since I'm trying to bake all the bread rather than buying it at the store, what was I to do but make some. And of course I had to try the Potato Bread from A Year In Bread. There really wasn't any choice in the matter. I swear.

This is good white bread. Nothing spectacular, but that's sort of the point of white bread in my opinion. It's very moist, soft, and almost sproingy (yep, a technical term). Travis gave it 2 thumbs up and he's the original Wonder Bread guy. So I think it's safe to say it was a hit.

The thing that occurred to me when I was making this bread is that I love the process of bread. I love mixing it - and I've found that I like mixing it by hand rather than using the mixer, kneading it, and watching it rise. It's just so satisfying. And the smell when it's baking - yum.

The one thing I'm not sure of is the new Chicago Metallic bread pans I just bought. I love the pans, but look at my loaves.

The tops browned nicely, but the bottoms didn't brown at all. The loaves are done (or at least the one I cut is). Any ideas on what's going on with that?

While I can actually live on bread alone, Travis thinks we also need cookies to have a full life (and who can complain about cookies). I decided to go out on a limb and try something new. I looked through How To Bake and came up with a variation on the sugar cookie.

The recipe is called Swiss Butter Mailaenderli. The description says, "These delicate cookies are called in Swiss dialect 'Little Milanesi' - probably because they were originally based on an Italian cookie." The cookies are very plain, but flaky and rich. They're great with a cup of tea, but I'm not sure they're sweet enough for Travis without some frosting. I did sprinkle some with sugar and those might be more to his liking.

As the weather gets warmer here - finally - I find myself thinking of lace. I'm struggling to stay focused on Butterfly, and I'm going to try to hold out as long as possible. If you could all provide some moral support to keep me on the straight and narrow, I'd appreciate it. The second Retro Rib sock is coming along, but more slowly than the first. This weekend should provide some good knitting time, so I'm trying not to stress about that. But you know me, I tend to stress about things.