So, first, take about a cup and a half of oatmeal, and put it through a food processor for maybe a minute or so. Now, I didn't have a food processor before I started this, but I had to go to the supermarket anyway to pick up some of the ingredients, and I found one on the shelf. If it were a radio station I would get to describe it as "broadcasting live from Illinois with 30 watts of bone-crunching power!" But, sadly, it was not a radio station; it was a cheap $6 blender that groaned and struggled through the oatmeal, leaving me to wonder what it would actually be good for...parsley, perhaps? Or maybe it could stir liquids? I'll think of something to do with it, I'm sure.
Anyway, back to the bread! Add 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast to just more than a cup of warm water, and then stir in 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of some delicious, homemade maple syrup. While you leave that to proof for a few minutes, combine the (very coarsely) ground oatmeal with 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt and 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil (to be honest, I didn't have veggie oil, so I substituted the some of the immense store of peanut oil I had left over from my very infrequent attempts at Asian-inspired cooking). Add in the yeast mixture, and then stir in 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. Add 1 cup of chopped walnuts and, when they are pretty well mixed in, stir in 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
The dough will still be quite sticky, but fortunately it is a very easy dough to work with. So, knead in about another 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (until it becomes much less sticky and much more resilient.) Also, I have to admit that even though this dough doesn't put up the kind of fight I usually like when kneading, it is still a lot of fun to work with. The coarse oatmeal gives it a funny kind of texture, and having sharp little bits of walnut waiting to stab you adds a little variety to life. Anyway, when the dough is ready roll it around in a buttered bowl and put in the oven (turned to it's absolute lowest setting) for the
First Rising (1 hour and 10 minutes)
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Well, I'm happy to say that I am once again well rested, and that hopefully I won't have too too much work for another few weeks or so (just the usual problem sets...very manageable). Also, over the last week I've gotten to see my share of absurd and absurdly hilarious things. Two quick examples: first, whoever lives downstairs from me (Side note: I've never actually seen anybody else that lives in my 4-unit apartment building...I only ever see trace bits of evidence that I'm not the only person there...the mail will disappear from mailboxes every week or so...sometimes somebody else has moved the trash cans to the curb on pickup day, that sort of thing. But never any lights on in the house and only twice in the last eight months have I even heard music playing elsewhere in the house) left a stack of old magazines outside her door by the steps. And the only one whose cover is visible has two big, bold-faced headlines: "The 10 Most Dangerous Health Issues for Women" and "Tasty-Yummy Meals for Thanksgiving!" So anyway, that's been sitting on the steps for about a week now, and so far it hasn't failed to make me laugh a bit each time I see it at the end of the day. And then there's the fact that somebody brought the game "Rock Band" to the physics grad student lounge. Of course I'm not really good enough to play, but it is certainly hilarious just watching other people go at it. I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did listening to someone try to sing "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a good time to comment on how variable this baking and rising times can be. The original recipe suggested that it would take closer to 1.5 hours for the first rising, and even more different close to 2 hours for the second rising. But, apparently different temperature/humidity conditions can have a ridiculous effect on baking, so I've learned (correctly, I hope!) to mostly ignore the times and just go by a few rules of thumb (i.e., something is done rising when it's about doubled in bulk, or when it doesn't spring back at all when poked).
But, anyway, back to the fun: time to punch that dough down! Then knead it a bit, and shape it into one large free-form loaf. Put a few diagonal slashes on top to add that extra pizzazz to the presentation, and then put on a buttered cookie sheet and put it on the kitchen floor by the window. Give the cookie sheet a periodic little kick to keep it in the moving square of sunlight as it goes through the
Second Rising (50 minutes)
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And, spring is most definitely here, it seems. The robins showing up last week were a hint, but the pigeons that appeared yesterday seem like a pretty strong confirmation. So anyway, the last few days have been pretty much glorious: bright and sunny, but still not too hot for me. Today I very much enjoyed the opportunity to do my work while sitting outside at a park. Off hand, I'm going to go ahead and say that under such circumstances I work about three times slower than I would if I were at home or at my office. But I'd also say that I work about four times happier, so I think that all works out for the best. Hope it's as nice wherever you happen to be these days!
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Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes (as usual, until it sounds hollow when tapped).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tasting verdict: Two things have to be acknowledged about this loaf. First, and perhaps most importantly, it is phenomenally tasty (a quick aside - Does anybody else remember the Bill Nye spoof of the lucky charms commercial... "Frost-ed luck-y stars are astro-nomic-ally delicious"?...well, that's the first thing I thought of after trying this bread...aaannd I'm a huge nerd.) But seriously, the taste is fantastic. There is a great balance between the hint of maple syrup that still comes through and the walnuts, and the oatmeal (I'm not sure if it was supposed to be ground more finely, so this might be an unintentional benefit) gives the bread a nice, medium-density texture. However, the second thing that must be acknowledged, and which the photos don't really show very clearly, is that this bread is, in addition to being fantastically tasty, also fantastically thin. Maybe an inch and a half at its highest. To get a good idea, if you cut a medium slice of this bread you would get something almost exactly the size of a coffee shop biscotti. This makes it slightly awkward when it comes to lunchtime sandwiches, I'm afraid. So, next time I make this I think I'll have to either use bread tins or just make two small free form loaves in the hopes that they would be stiff enough to hold up better and not spread out so much (admittedly, this is what the original recipe called for...sadly, my second cookie sheet apparently had a prior engagement and was thus nowhere to be found when I needed it).
Currently reading: Still reading Mencken, and, based on the length of the book, probably will be next week, too. He's such a good writer that even when I don't care much about what he has to say (frankly, political conventions during the 1920's aren't exactly what I spend my spare time thinking about), I just love hearing how he goes about saying it. I think he should have been required reading in substitute for some of the nonsense we had to read for Writing Workshop, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, the book is awesome and hilarious.
Next week: Ah, the great mysteries of life!
1 comment:
ah menken.
what a d-bag.
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