"Homestyle" Bread

First, a big birthday shout-out to Cousin Jesse; hope you have a fantastic day!

Now, to start the bread, stir together 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 a cup of warm milk in a bowl and set aside. In a mixing bowl combine 1 1/2 cups of warm milk with 1 tablespoon of salt and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. Add three cups of all-purpose flour to this and mix it to a sludge-like consistency. Add in the yeast mixture, stir, and then add in another 2 or so cups of flour.

Turn out on a floured board and start kneading. This turns out to be a bizarrely difficult dough to knead, but not because the dough itself is tough. Quite the opposite. In fact, the dough is so pliable that when kneading it feels like your hand simply pushes through the entire dough (like, of course, a hot knife through butter...out of curiosity, does anybody ever actually do that? Heat up a knife and then cut butter with it?), so instead of kneading you might get the impression that you are just pushing the ingredients around. No matter, keep adding flour and kneading until the dough is no longer sticky. Put in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place during the


First Rising (1 hour and 10 minutes)
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Well, this last week was easily one of the very toughest (work-wise, of course) since I've been here in Illinois. It all started Wednesday morning, having to wake up at 6:00 to be ready to teach that morning...usually I can sleep in a little bit more than that, but I'd forgotten to do some prep work (running over the mini-lecture, photocopying quizzes, that sort of thing) the night before, so I had to be up early. Anyway, then the rest of the day was spent working on a week-long take-home exam, with a pair of quick breaks for lunch and then dinner. And then, working away and not paying attention, before I knew what had happened I checked and my watch claimed that it was 4:00 in the morning. So, I started walking home, but when I got there I realized, somewhat in horror and somewhat in bemusement, that I had repeated exactly the same mistakes as the night before in forgetting to prepare for the discussion section which I have on Thursday as well as Wednesday mornings. I realized that, given how long it takes me to fall asleep, odds were that I would get at most an hour of sleep if I tried. So, I said, forget that.

A rookie mistake. So anyway, instead of trying to catch some sleep, I took a quick shower, ate a bowl of cereal, fixed myself a sandwich for later in the day, and started walking right back to the physics building. Unfortunately, now that it was Thursday and the exam was due the next day, I had no choice but to stay awake and work on it until it was finished. But that didn't happen, on account of interruptions throughout the day (teaching, classes...such silly stuff) until about 2 a.m. Now, I know that many people are perfectly able pull extended all-nighters like that, but I'm not such a fan. And those 44+ hours of uninterrupted wakefulness not only crushed but came perilously close to actually doubling my previous record for time spent continuously awake (which, curiously, was also set during a week immediately following a vacation). Well, let's just say that while I was less out-of-sorts than I might have expected myself to be by the end of it, I was still plenty loopy.
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Punch the dough down and knead it for another few minutes. Cut roughly in half, shape into loaves, and put into buttered 9x5 and 8x4 bread tins. Cover with plastic wrap and return to a warm spot for the

Second Rising (50 minutes)
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Well, after a week like that, perhaps you aren't that surprised that I don't have anything terribly interesting to add here. The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that, in fact, the thing that changes the most from week to week in my life revolves around food. So, for instance, this week to bookend that painful exam experience I tried my hand at two new dishes for the first time! Pad Thai (an unmitigated disaster involving the noodles fusing together into one impenetrable fortress, surrounded by an army a tiny cooked shrimp, egg, and bean sprouts trying to get in) and Chicken Parmigianna (a success! a triumph of cooking almost certainly unparalleled in the history of civilization). I think I need a new hobby.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Just before putting the bread in, brush with a lightly beaten mixture of 1 egg and about 1 tablespoon of cold water. Bake for 40 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Well, one the one hand the flavor is nothing to write home about, in that it tastes fine but pretty unexceptional. It reminds me slightly of the loaves of bread Mom used to make when she was preparing her particularly dense style of garlic bread. On the other hand, the crust on this bread is excellent! I love the deep brown color (which, I suspect, is actually a combination of the egg wash and leaving it in the oven for maybe a minute or two too long), and it is phenomenally crispy. I might have to use the brush-with-beaten-egg technique more frequently...

Currently reading: "On Mencken" - a collection of essays, some by and some about, H.L. Mencken. He is, as I am just discovering, and absurdly good writer.

Next week: Rumor has it that I might soon be receiving my first mailed in recipe to try....very exciting!

Buttermilk White Bread

I have to say, this was not the bread I had originally planned to make this weekend. Unfortunately, when I got back from the supermarket I realized that I had accidentally gotten condensed milk instead of evaporated milk. So, I sort of looked around the kitchen to see what bread that I hadn't made yet but that I had the ingredients for. This is that bread.

Start out by proofing 5 teaspoons of yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 of a cup of warm water. After a few minutes, add to this 1 tablespoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 1/4 cups of buttermilk, and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. A quick digression on buttermilk here. I just want to say, for the record, that buttermilk is not something I usually just have around the house. It is definitely one of the ingredients for that other loaf I was planning on making. In fact, I can't remember ever having buttermilk before, but I tasted it as I was adding it to the mix, and to me it is gross. Just really, really nasty. After tasting it I was actually a bit hesitant about continuing to make this bread. But, like with the molasses I decided to try to trust the, let's say, magically transformative power of fire (well, okay, an oven) to change foodstuffs from execrable to edible.

Anyway, stir and then knead the resulting dough...Even though this was made only with all-purpose flour and none of the denser rye flours, this was easily the toughest dough I've made yet. Kneading it was practically a battle of wits: putting all of my weight into the dough would barely dent it, and even my patented flying kneading technique was of little use! So, instead, I initially had to resort to all manner of clever folding patterns to try to evenly mix all of the ingredients together. After much effort I was finally at least able to get it to form what looked like a typical ball of dough, albeit with all the density and character of brick. Anyway, roll the dough-ball around in a buttered bowl, cover it, and put in the oven (as always, turned to the lowest "bake" setting and with the door ajar) for the

First Rising (1 hour and 10 minutes)
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I hate to break tradition (if 11 weeks constitutes a tradition) and talk about making something other than bread in this blog, but mentioning condensed and evaporated milk at the beginning of the entry reminded me of...powdered milk! Which was, sadly, a staple growing up in my house until I was maybe 6 or so. Powdered milk is really not a good substitute for real milk, but it does have one redeeming feature: the ability to make peanut-butter balls!

These were, I think, the very first thing I learned how to "cook," and they are absolutely delicious! Or at least, they were as I remember them... of course it's been years and years (*ahem*) since I last made them. But, they were easy enough for a six-year-old to make, so I'm sure I haven't lost the ability to throw them together. Basically, this is what you do: start with some peanut butter (for argument's sake, let's say half a cup), and add some honey (maybe two tablespoons). So, now the problem as I remember things is that the peanut-butter/honey mix is absurdly sticky. Clearly what's called for is some powdered milk. Throw some (I have no idea how much) in there, and stir around. If the mixture gets too crumbly, add more honey. And more peanut butter. Keep going back and forth until you can roll the mix into little balls that hold together but don't stick to you hands as you make them. Place them all on a cookie sheet, cover (and I mean cover) with confectioners sugar, and put in the freezer for at least an hour... Mmmm... tasty!
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Remove the dough from the oven, punch it down, and then knead it for a few minutes. The dough will have completely changed it's character from the first kneading...whereas before it felt impossibly dense and difficult to work with, now it will be easily handled and with an almost satiny smoothness and texture. Hmm...hope rises that maybe the flavor will similarly completely change by the time this thing is through!

After this second kneading, shape into a loaf and put into a buttered 9x5 bread pan. Cover, put in a warm spot, and let the bread rise. Because of all of the yeast in this dough, it will more than double in bulk if you let it. So, lest it spill far over the edge of the pan, keep an eye on it during the

Second Rising (40 minutes)
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Well, I had a pretty uninteresting break this last week...Mostly my routine was just the same as during the semester, except of course that I never sat in a classroom or stood in front of one. I did decide to try to whip myself into somewhat better shape, so I spent more time than usual at the gym (which is both conveniently but also, when I don't go, rather maddeningly on my walk home from the office). I like to think that I exercise when I go to the gym, as opposed to all the people I see working out there. I'm not exactly sure what distinction I'm making there...but as an example there's something both slightly funny and slightly irritating about those folks who go to the gym, spend all of their time with weights in front of a mirror while making "RRRrraaargghhh! I'm such a Beast!!!" sort of faces. Do you know what I mean? I guess that's what I think of as working out.

The only other new thing to strike over break was my reintroduction to...grapes! I make a point to try to buy apples or oranges from the supermarket each week when I go, but other than that I don't get as much of a fruit variety as I should. Which is a shame. Anyway, I had forgotten how much I like grapes, and yesterday I thought I would just snack on a few before heading out the door...but basically, I ended up going to town on about a 3/4-pound bag...that was, just maybe, a few too many grapes at once... So, plan for the future: more frequent, but in more moderation.
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Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. After taking this bread out of the oven, you really will have to wait until it cools down before slicing...

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Tasting verdict: Well, score another point for Team Prometheus, I guess! By the time this came out of the oven it still had a faint buttermilk-y smell to it, but it faded quickly and the bread ended up tasting just fine. The texture is fairly light, although it is rather denser and particularly richer than a normal white bread. The interior has just a standard, slightly rich sort of taste, but the crust has a certain je ne sais quoi to it's taste...well, I guess, not exactly "I know not what," because it's got to be the buttermilk, but you know what I mean.

Currently reading: I haven't started anything new yet (that exam tomorrow is still holding me back), although mentioning Prometheus in that last paragraph made me (literally, just now) go re-read The Gift of Fire. And then this (just the first speech...not really the rest of it).

Next week: No set plans...but something almost impossibly exciting, I'm sure.

Swedish Limpa Bread

Before we get going with this week's loaf, I wanted to quickly address the comment Jesse left last week, in which he said I made it sound so easy to bake bread. I want to stress that it really is that easy! I mean, I have no real expertise here, and certainly didn't know anything about making bread before I started a few months ago. And remarkably, I have yet to seriously mess a loaf up. I have therefore concluded that with somebody else's recipe, modern ingredients, and the patience to knead the dough well, it is practically impossible to screw up a basic loaf of yeast-based bread. So anyway, please do try these loaves out on your own if you feel like it; I'd love to hear how it comes out!

Now, since this is the start of my Spring Break, I thought I would go for a more intensive bread than usual. This time we'll be going with another Scandinavian bread, and I think this one set my record for needing to go shopping for the most extra ingredients. But it's worth it.

Start out by dissolving 1 teaspoon of sugar and 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in 1/4 of a cup of warm water. While that's just sitting there, in a separate bowl combine 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 cups of room-temperature beer (since I didn't have any already in the apartment and I didn't really want to buy a whole six-pack when I only needed a bottle and a half, I went with one of those single, oversized bottles of Wychwood "Hobgoblin: Dark English Ale"...but I think anything reasonably flavorful would be fine, too), and 1/3 of a bear of honey (I suppose, just in case anybody is trying to follow this recipe, I should clarify that the plastic bear-shaped bottles of honey that my supermarket sells are exactly 1 cup. But I rather like quoting honey in bears! It's such a natural unit...) In another separate dish grate the peels of two medium-sized oranges (I got about 2 tablespoons of grated peel out of this), and add 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds (in your wisdom, you might know that rye bread gets its distinctive smell from caraway seeds...but me, in my ignorance, just took a whiff and thought, "gosh, this smells just like rye bread"). Finally, in yet another dish (by this point I had run out of mixing bowls, so this last one was done on a dinner plate) mix together 3 cups of all purpose flour and 2 1/2 cups of dark rye flour.

Blend together the two liquid mixtures, and also stir in the grated orange peel and caraway seeds. Then add just 3 cups of the flour mix, and thoroughly beat with a wooden spoon until it has an even consistency. An even consistency somewhere between mud and Jello pudding. Cover with tin foil and set in a warm spot for the

First Rising (45 minutes)
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So, I made it through that last week of classes (not to mention Thursday's midterm), and now it's Spring break. On the one hand, I wish I were headed off somewhere...not Acapulco or anything, but just around the East coast, say. Unfortunately, the price of gas and plane tickets, along with the demands of classes (one take-home midterm over the break, and one midterm the day break ends) have conspired to make that relatively impossible.

On the other hand, though, I think this will be a pretty good break. I usually go a bit stir crazy if I have too much time off on vacation. Two or three days normally and suddenly I start wishing I had something to do. So, I did absolutely no work this weekend, and now that I'm just starting to feel a bit antsy about what to do with myself, I'll be able to start easing into work tomorrow. Nothing too stressful; just enough to keep me busy.
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After uncovering the dough it will still be an oozing, sub-pudding-consistency mess. So, instead of punching the dough down, just stir it until it deflates a bit. Then stir in the rest of the flour, and start kneading. For the first few minutes the dough will have a rather rough texture, as if you could still feel the seeds and orange peels throughout. After kneading in about another 1/4 cup of flour, though, the dough will become much smoother. When it's reasonably smooth and elastic, put in a buttered bowl, cover, and let undergo the

Second Rising (1 hour and 15 minutes)
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Re-reading that last "First Rising" comment just made me really sad. I mean, it's all true, but man. Apparently I have no idea how to take a vacation. Come to think of it, I don't think that's all that unusual. Outside of video games and watching TV, I vaguely feel like people in general aren't really good with having lots of free time. Or (and this is perhaps more likely) maybe it's just that I spend too much time in a physics building populated at all odd hours of the day by graduate students...not exactly exemplars of people with normal life priorities.
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Now the dough has a proper consistency for being punched down. Do it! Then shape into a large ball, put on a buttered cookie sheet, and clear out some space in the fridge...If your fridge is anything like mine, some considerable Tetris talent might come into play in figuring out how to fit a cookie sheet in there. I recommend playing the Tetris song as inspiration (I was floored to discover recently that what I think of as the Tetris song was actually a song written in 1861 called "Korobeiniki"). Once the refrigerator door can finally close with the bread inside, find something to do while the bread sort of just

Chills Out (3 hours)
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And speaking of which, we're just two days into this vacation and the few friends of mine that are also hanging around campus and I have already managed to go to the movies twice (with yet a third cinema trip tentatively planned for Tuesday). Neither movie was really all that good. First we saw Semi-Pro (that new Will Ferrell film), and it was just bad. I mean, there were a few chuckle-moments, but the whole film felt like a faded carbon copy of every other film he's done. Disappointing. The movie the next day was the Bank Job, which was interesting and at least fun to watch. But again, it felt like it borrowed a bit too much from that main actor's (sorry..I'm horrible with the names) other movies to be really great.

It's a bit strange...I almost never (or at least, very rarely) enjoy the films that I see in theaters, but there something about just going to the movies that I really like. I don't know if its the experience of seeing a movie in a large crowd (halfway between faceless and not, since you know whoever you went with but not anybody else in the room), the extra spectacle of the big screen and loud volume, the bizarrely uniform seating from theater to theater, or just the movie candy (Junior Mints...every time. Objectively the best movie candy ever made). But, whatever it is, I'm always somehow up for going again.
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Take the dough out of the refrigerator, and let it sit for 15 minutes at room temperature while the oven preheats to 375 degrees. Just before putting the bread in the oven, take a very sharp knife and make a few slashes to allow the bread to freely expand just a bit more as it bakes. Since we've already done diagonal slashes and cross shapes, take this opportunity to hone your Zorro-like initialing skills. Bake for an hour.

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Tasting verdict: First, let me say that the following might, just might be biased by the fact that today I skipped breakfast, started making this bread at 11:00 (thinking I would have a late lunch - I really hadn't read the recipe very carefully), and didn't finish until about 6:30, with only the two oranges whose peels I grated as snacks during the day. Having said that, though, this bread was just awesome! It has a very crisp crust, and the interior has a chewy, medium-density sort of crumb. And the taste! Quite flavorful, sweet but not obnoxiously so, with those excellent hints of orange that clearly come through but don't overwhelm. Okay, enough gushing, but I really do like this bread. Depending on how well it holds up over the week, this will be vying with the anadama for the coveted title of "Best loaf...so far."

Currently reading: A "working vacation" sort of mix: Shakespeare's Pericles and Baym's Lectures on Quantum Mechanics.

Next week: If I'm feeling ambitious enough to start preparing it the necessary days in advance, a sourdough loaf. And if not...well, something else.

"French" Bread

Much as I would have liked to title this more simply "French Bread" without the extra set of quotation marks...sadly my research indicates that under French Law no loaf may be called "French Bread" unless the only ingredients are yeast, flour, salt, and water. And the loaf I made also called for a tablespoon of sugar, so apparently it's not too authentic...

Anyway, I wanted to mix up my bread usage for the week, and for dinner I had planned on making Mom's fantastic "pasta with cream sauce" recipe (which makes an inordinate amount of cream sauce for the amount of spaghetti it calls for). So, I thought I'd make an easy bread to go with dinner.

Start off by proofing 3 3/4 teaspoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. After a few minutes stir in 1 tablespoon of salt and about 5 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, and start kneading. As has been the case these last few weeks, this is an almost painfully easy dough to knead...not really an epic struggle at all. Much more like the those fights in action movies against not the chief villain but rather the random, nameless henchmen: the outcome is never in doubt, and the hero barely has to break a sweat. Oh well.

Put in a buttered bowl and place in the oven, turned to it's lowest possible temperature setting, and allow to undergo the

First (and only!!) Rising (1 hour and 30 minutes)
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I'm afraid this last week has been a blur of lots of work and not too much of a life outside of the physics building. Classes all loaded up on work before Spring break (the week after next). And then on Friday (when I usually only have one class to teach in the late afternoon) another TA got sick and I ended up teaching two extra classes...from 8:00-10:00 and 10:00-12:00 in the morning. I didn't mind so much, but by the end of the day I was definitely a little hoarse and more than a little tired of "Discussion week 7: Impulse and Momentum."

Anyway, assorted high points of the week... (1) Wine-and-cheese party, immediately preceded by cooking dinner with friends last weekend ( [number of times I have turned down an offer that is phrased something like "let's just make a big-old roast this weekend"] = 0). (2) Getting a Maine state quarter in my change from lunch today (even if I'm still sad that they didn't go with the Mt. Katahdin design for the quarter). (3) Saturday brunch provided by the physics department (recruiting next year's crop of grad students). (4) A fortune cookie informing me that "Good things are being, said about you." (What the devil is that comma doing there?) (5) Finishing a pair of problem sets about an hour ago (a bit sad that that makes this list...but it's just been that sort of week I suppose).
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Take the dough out of the oven, punch it down, and divide into two pieces. Flatten each piece into a rough rectangle, then fold in half and roll up into a tube (this would have been so much easy, with better looking results no doubt, had I happened to have a baguette pan). Place the loaves onto a cookie sheet that has been liberally sprinkled with cornmeal. Make those sweet-looking diagonal slashes on top of the loaves, brush the loaves with cold water, and then place the cookie sheet in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 400 degrees, and let bake for 35 minutes.
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Tasting verdict: Tasty! This bread turned out very light but with a pretty close texture. Also, it is incredibly absorbent, which made it great for sopping up extra sauce. Since there is no fat in the bread I don't think it will last more than a few days (and it wouldn't really have made for terribly interesting sandwiches, anyway), but I think it will make for good breakfast/dinner bread while it lasts. I'm particularly anticipating some delicious French-toast-breakfasts!

Currently reading: Midterm coming up next Thursday. Ergo my current reading will mostly involve going over "Mathematics for Physics II: A Set of Lecture Notes" for the next few days...

Next week: Since by next weekend it'll be spring break, I'll probably go with something relatively elaborate...any requests?

Raisin and Nut Bread

While this is not the worst tasting bread I've made so far (that honor, even though it wasn't really that bad, goes to the Bavarian Rye of early February) this was easily the most disappointing loaf. So, follow this recipe at your own risk...

Start off by proofing 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in 1/2 a cup of warm water with 2 tablespoons of honey. While that is sitting for a few minutes, we'll again heat up 1 3/4 cups of milk and 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan (with 2 teaspoons of salt, as well). Once the milk and butter is warm, add the liquids together and stir in about 6 cups of all-purpose flour. Knead well (another easily-kneaded type of dough this week, I'm afraid), put in a buttered bowl, cover and set aside in a warm, draft-free spot. Also, start soaking 1/2 cups of raisins in a bit of "cognac" (what the recipe calls for...but which translates roughly into "cheap brandy" on a grad student's budget) as the bread undergoes the

First Rising (1 hour)
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I did not go to a large state school as an undergraduate. This does not really come as any news to me (nor does it, I expect, to you!). Still, this week a pair of events reminded me of how different my undergraduate education was than what students get here. Last Tuesday I got an email from one of my students asking if I would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for her for some summer internship or other. Of course I was happy to, but the idea of it somewhat startled me. After all, this is a student (a junior) that I've seen in class once a week, for two hours at a time, for just under half of a semester. That I might be one of the teachers she thinks would best be able to write a rec. just seems strange to me. I remember feeling a bit funny when, needing one more such letter when applying to grad schools, I had to ask a professor that I had only taken one tutorial and a class from.

And on the other side of the college-experience-spectrum, last Friday was "Unofficial" (as in "unofficial St. Patrick's Day"), when students more or less start drinking early in the morning and keep at it until Saturday. To illustrate, on my way to the office at about 7:30 that morning I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to pick up some doughnut holes for my class that afternoon (wanting to give the, as it turned out, 11 of 23 students that actually made it to class that afternoon a little treat), but there was a large group of green-clad students just in front of me in line, already quite loud and boisterous, that bought every doughnut left in the store. Apparently last year (I was reading this in the student paper last week) arrests and citations were handed out to students from 46 different universities.
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Take the dough out of the oven, punch it down, and let rest for a few minutes. Then, strain the raisins, and knead both them and about 1/2 a cup of chopped walnuts into the dough. This is really, really gross. You see, those raisins, strained or no, still are covered with and contain a fair amount of brandy. And maybe you pour alcohol all over yourself because you enjoy both that sticky texture of spilled drinks and smelling like you've been drinking since 9 in the morning... But not so much for me.

So anyway, after kneading in the raisins this dough gets sticky and quite difficult to work with. Divide it into two equal pieces and place in a buttered 9x5 and 8x4 bread pan. Now, perhaps a moment's thought is enough to convince you that dividing dough into equal pieces and placing them into different sized bread pans doesn't really make all that much sense. I think you'd be right, and that you'd clearly make for a more sensible baker than I.

Place the two bread pans in that warm, draft-less spot and let the bread undergo the

Second Rising (40 minutes)
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Otherwise, not too much is really going on with me these days...In the "apartment-improvement" category, thanks to a pair of gifts through the mail over the past two weeks I finally have an average of more than one decorative item per room! Quite an improvement from my college-dorm days, I think you'll agree.

Aside from that, this week I've been practicing getting so little sleep as to wonder if my mind is starting to slip a bit (no snide comments on that, please). Case in point: last Wednesday night I had to stay up late enough doing work that, if I was interested in maximizing time asleep I wouldn't have bothered walking back to my apartment (but, and I think quite reasonably, I'm more interested in succeeding at the "never-spend-an-entire-night-in-the-physics-building game). Now, first, that next Thursday started out brilliantly! Somehow when I woke up I knew the answer to a question I couldn't figure out before going to sleep, which put me in a rather good mood. But then, on my walk back to the office, I was cutting through a parking lot and I thought I saw a ribbon-sticker on a car that said "Green's functions!" (which, in case you were wondering, are a particularly useful tool for solving differential equations in lots of physics problems). I thought it more than a little odd that anybody would ever put a sticker like that on their car, so I looked again. And upon closer inspection the sticker actually said, "I adopted a dog." That episode worried me a bit. And convinced me to go to sleep at the earliest possible moment.
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Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, to give the crust extra color and texture, take the loaves out of the bread pans and let the bread cook directly on the oven racks for another 4 or 5 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Well, as you can see from this picture, somehow not too many nuts or raisins made it to the center of this loaf. I thought I had done a good job kneading everything in, but apparently somehow everything migrated to the surface of the bread while it was rising and baking. I'm not quite sure how that happened. So, this basically tastes like a slightly-too-sweet white bread with a really weird crust of raisins and walnuts that range from nice and crispy (on the top of the loaf) to burned (on the bottom of the loaf). Overall, it tastes fine, but is rather disappointing in terms of how much extra work it was compared to how plain it turned out.

Currently reading: Just finished the Borges from the last two weeks (quite literally...I read the last pages while this bread was in the oven), and on the way to the office I stopped at the library and picked up The Hunting of the Snark (still one of my favorite Lewis Carroll works) and Ibsen's Peer Gynt (which was not a play I realized even existed before today...but hey, I like Grieg's suite, so maybe I'll like this too, right?)

Next week: Looking back at what I've made so far, I've managed some classic American breads, a few from Scandinavia, and a few German-ish loaves. Maybe next week I'll try a French bread? A brioche or some sort of baguette, perhaps...