As those that read my rants will know I am anti advertising, I refuse to purchase things that are ‘sold’ to me. I am no mere mortal to be manipulated by industry, I am my own man and I tread my own path. Having said all of this I am not immune to Paul Hollywood, I don’t mean that his manly charms excite me but he has a certain way with words. Let me be honest here the thing that makes me interested is the simple operations that make bread, can it really be that easy?
Christmas provides the opportunity to find out and I have to say this makes engineering look boring! The first task of bread making is dough but here there is a paynteresk requirement to convert instant yeast measures to dried active yeast measures. This is not easy maths it is a complex calculation involving breeding your own living organism and racing it against somebody else’s idea. Once yeast is turned into whatever yeast needs to be to be to do its thing you have to make dough. Dough is a simple term for craggy nasty junk that looks nothing like the tv told you.
Here the world changes, when you ‘knead’ the messy lump that you have produced it changes structure, my god it’s a thing of beauty. Achieving this first step is encouraging, but there is yet more to come. Taking a cloth from your dough and finding that it is four times its original size, something to do with yeast or heat or luck, is amazing. Now for those of you that eschew such modern comforts as central heating I can advise, reluctantly, that a desktop computer is an adequate if odd heat source. If that were all there was to it then I wouldn’t bother writing.
You knock the air that you have introduced out of the bread, hell I don’t make this stuff up I just follow the rules. So second time around it grows again, USB powered don’t you know? An oven, some heat and …… Well I would advise using less olive oil my bloomer is a fantastic example of ciabatta but that is amazing in itself, I didn’t fail to produce a stunning pice of bread it just isn’t the breakfast dish I intended! This stuff is addictive, I already realise that not measuring the olive oil was a failure, I know I need a flat tray. But as a process my first go has produced a wonderful crust (note the PH terms) great bread and a fantastic taste. I am genuinely amazed at what that flower and yeast turned into.
The seagulls will enjoy my experiments because I have so many more ideas and only a limited stomach. Guys this stuff is amazing! girls same answer but anyone with children get experimenting, this isn’t bread, maths or science it’s a crazy wonderful combination.
