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.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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