Challah, take two

Another stab at making this fancy loaf, with a slight variation from our last attempt.

To start off, boil 1/3 of a cup of water and then pour over a (generous but unmeasured) pinch of saffron. Separately, proof 6 teaspoons of yeast in 1 cup of warm water, and let both sit for about five minutes. Then, in a large bowl stir these into 3 beaten eggs, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Start adding some all-purpose flour, a little at a time, until you've added just less than 5 cups of flour. Knead until the dough is quite stiff, then place in a buttered bowl for the

First rising (1 hour and 30 minutes)
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So, everybody that I've told this story to so far has been, shall we say, less than impressed. But I was still irrationally happy when this happened, so I'll share anyway.

Sometime last week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, I went to one of the local coffee shops to do some work (having spent more than enough time in my office and looking for a change of scenery in which to read some papers). I didn't particularly want coffee, but you can't just sit there all day without ordering anything, so I got a cup - served in a glass, actually - added a packet of sugar, poured in some half-and-half, and found myself a seat. Once again exposing my coffee naivety, though, I quite conspicuously forgot to stir this all together.

Anyway, this turned out to be a brilliant move on my part, since the next time I looked up I had created a masterpiece! So, I present the four-fold, coffee version of the black and tan:

[nerdy bit: Presumably the layers are, in order from bottom to top (1) a thin layer of sugar saturated coffee...you'll recall from junior-high science that sugar water can be up to 80% more dense than regular water! (2) milk-laden coffee (3) cream-laden coffee, and (4) coffee. Exciting for a few reasons: first, this confirms for me that this coffee shop has half-and-half that is actually a mix of two different liquids, and which is not just some synthetic substitute. Second, this puts some (to me) potentially surprising limits on what the density of coffee can be. Cream, after all, is only barely more dense than water, so the fact that coffee can float on top of it means the density must be falling in a pretty narrow range of values. Either that or there are some much more complicated boundary-layer effects that I am not bothering to consider just now.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how much yeast was added, this dough rises very quickly...which means there's quite a lot of punching down to do. Once that's over and done with, divide the dough in four, and make each into a fairly long (let's say about 16 inches) strand of dough (much like the pizza dough and the latest cinnamon bread, this will take a few iterations of stretching, letting the dough relax, stretching again, etc.). Once they are all roughly the same length, use them to make a grid-like shape, with alternating over/under strands (once again, I am totally guessing at how to do this...if anybody has an actual method, please let me know!). Then, take each of the four "under" strands and fold it counter-clockwise over the nearest "over" strand. Next, take what are the new "under" strands (i.e. what was a moment ago the "over" strands) and fold them clockwise over the nearest strands. Repeat, going back and forth between clockwise and counter-clockwise folds, until the strands run out. Then end result should look
similar to but better than this:


Cover, set aside, and let sit for the

Second rising (45 minutes)
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This weekend I just went to the funniest, most stereotypically Midwestern place I've been yet. On Sunday I took a trip out to a nearby pick-your-own-apples orchard and pumpkin patch sort of place. Or at least, that's what I thought it was. It turns out, though, that it was much, much more than that. In addition to the orchard, there was also an entire Wizard of Oz themed country fair sort of thing, complete with a Flying Monkey Cafe, a Ruby Slippers maze, and so on. Where "so on" manages to encompass a corn maze and a non-mechanical, donkey powered merry-go-round. Oh, and an activity station where you try to identify what sort of minerals water has been flowing through based on the color of the sludge coming out the end of a pipe. It was incredible.
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Brush the top of the dough with 1 cold beaten egg, and then sprinkle liberally with poppy seeds. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Well, pretty tasty, but a little disappointing. I am still a long way from the loaf my mom makes, and to be honest, I'm not even sure if this is better than the last Challah I made. The flavor is a little better (I think the saffron was a nice touch! maybe a little more next time...oh, if only, as the Danish cashier at the supermarket said, saffron wasn't "a million dollars a thread"), but it tastes a little drier than I remember the last one tasting.

Reasonability check: On further thought, you might question my ability to so precisely recall and thus compare against a loaf of bread I made in April...point taken.

Currently reading: The "Prose Edda," a book of Norse mythology written in 13th century Iceland, a "Penguin Classics" copy of which I found in practically mint condition at a yard sale on my way back from the office this weekend. I've only just started, so I can't say much about it..but I've already learned that this book is clearly where Tolkien got the name Gandalf, along with the name of just about every dwarf in his books.

Sara's Best ever, no fail, essence-of-orange cinnamon bread

Not only is this week's bread easily the best-named one we've had on the Bread Blog, but clocking in at over 1700 miles by the most direct route across the Earth's surface it has leaped to the front of the "recipe with the farthest distance traveled" competition. I'm excited!

So, to get this project started combine in a big bowl the following: 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 beaten egg, 1/2 of a cup of sugar, 3/4 of a cup of orange juice, and 1 cup of warmed milk. Take one large orange and grate the peel into the bowl as well, (perhaps I should have put a disclaimer on this recipe in case anyone is getting queasy just thinking about oranges...) and then stir in 2 cups of whole wheat flour until everything is well mixed together. Add to this 2 3/4 teaspoons of yeast proofed in 1/4 of a cup of warm water.

Slowly stir in 4 cups of all-purpose flour, and get to kneading. Much like the Norwegian whole wheat, this dough isn't so difficult to work with in terms of its toughness so much as the shear volume of it. That and, I suspect, the fact that my arms hurt from a particularly taxing rock-climbing session earlier in the week. Anyway, after 12 or so minutes the dough should have a nice elastic but not-too-overworked texture to it, so put it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for the

First rising (1 hour and 20 minutes)
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So, this post is going up a day late because I just got back from a weekend trip to Chicago. It was really quite a good time, including a nicely eclectic mix of activities, from the symphony orchestra to a science museum to a matinee show of The Second City. Which was absolutely hilarious. No offense to Combo Za or anything, but that was by far the best improv/sketch comedy I've ever seen.

Anyway, mostly it was just nice to get out of town for a few days, seeing as I really didn't manage to do that much at all this summer. A very refreshing trip, and a good sort of mental endpoint to the summer... I feel like now I can really just settle in to the more regular routine of the semester: classes, problem sets, research, and all that jazz.
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Punch the dough down (be warned: quite surprisingly for a dough that was so soft to begin with, this dough punches back!) and divide it in two. Gently work the dough with your hands into two rectangles. This would be a good time to run a little experiment on final loaf states vs. rectangle sizes, so make one rectangle about 8x10 inches, and the other closer to 10x16 (but starting from roughly the same initial volume of dough, the difference being entirely in the thickness). Spread each rectangle very lightly with olive oil, and then coat evenly with a cinnamon-and-sugar mix (1 tablespoon of cinnamon to a little more than 1/4 of a cup of sugar). Roll up each rectangle, put the smaller one in an 8x4 bread tin, the larger in a 9x5, re-cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for the

Second rising (4o minutes)
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Just one more quick comment about that Chicago trip, specifically the symphony. Musically, it was great (minus one french horn player who just couldn't seem to end sustained notes gracefully). It was also nice to go to a concert where, except for an opening Rossini overture, I had never heard the pieces before (Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony)...I feel like recently most of the music I've heard live has been pieces I was already quite familiar with.

Also, the performing space in Symphony Center is pretty fantastic. I did think the row of seats above and behind the orchestra was a little weird though. It kept reminding me of professors lecturing about nobles sitting on the stage for performances of Elizabethan-era theater. Which may have distracted me slightly from the actual performance.
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Set the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes.


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Aesthetic verdict: Well, the interior is fine, but the exterior leaves something to be desired... Gigantor (the one on the right, from the 8x4 bread pan) clearly was rolled too tightly, whereas Mr. Eyes-and-a-nose was plainly rolled so tightly that he ripped himself apart in the baking.

Tasting verdict: Delicious! A bit too sweet to be a regular lunch loaf for sandwiches (although, let's be honest, that's what I'm using it for anyway), but absolutely fantastic as toast for breakfast. It has a good density, a soft crust, and a strong but not overpowering flavor of orange. And a whole lot of cinnamon-y tastiness.

Daniel's "Rock-Your-Socks-Off" Pizza Dough

[Disclaimer - empirically, may not actually rock your socks off]

To be honest, I just haven't really felt the sandwich-eating urge these last few days, and so my motivation to make another lunch-bread loaf has been severely lessened lately. So, I decided to mix things up a bit this week and try something a little less bread-like than usual. Still, objectively I consider pizza pretty squarely in the natural realm of this blog - you'll know I've really jumped the shark when I start posting about cake or waffles or whatnot...

Anyway, start off by proofing 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in just less than 1 cup of warm water. Pour the yeast/water mixture into a bowl with 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 2 teaspoons of salt, and stir. Add in 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and another cup of flour, and stir until you get a mixture with a consistency somewhere between pancake batter and more normal bread dough. Throw in two minced medium-sized cloves of garlic (or as approximately minced as your kitchen knife skills allow, as in my case), and some arbitrary amount of dried rosemary. I probably should have measured just how much, but since I was just making everything else up anyway I didn't bother. Stir all this together until it seems well blended. Decide that you can't see any of the rosemary in the dough and add more (let's pretend, for argument's sake, that we've just added a total of 1 1/2 teaspoons of rosemary). Stir in another 1/4 cup of flour, and then get to kneading.

[NB - As it turns out, adding rosemary to dough makes for an even more fun (and much more ticklish) bout of kneading than usual. Good to remember.] Knead in about another 1/2 cup of flour, until the dough attains that usual elastic sort of consistency. Since I had to work in so much more extra flour than usual, I probably kneaded this dough much more than I normally would have, and I'm not sure how much of a difference that made. But anyway, use some olive oil to coat a large bowl, put the dough in, cover, and let sit for the

First - and only - rising (2 hours and 30 minutes)
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Nothing much to report this week...other than the massive quantities of torrential rain that is pouring from the skies today, and the blustery winds that are whipping said rain around. So, in lieu of leaving my thoughts here, I'm going to try to sprint back to my apartment before foot-deep standing water develops at street intersections. I think I'll still get drenched, but hopefully less drenched than if I were to wait to leave until later. Wish me luck.
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Don't so much punch the dough down as try to carefully remove it from the bowl and onto a floured surface - an action that will end up deflating the dough just as surely as punching it if you happen to be as competent as I. Let the dough rest for a few minutes, and then take a floured rolling pin and start rolling the dough out into a circle. When the dough won't flatten out any more, let it rest for a few minutes, and then try rolling again. Repeat this process - likely several times - until the dough is (vaguely) a circle about 9 inches in diameter. At this point, take a stab at spinning the dough - you know you've always wanted to try! Realize, though, that that just didn't work at all. Use the rolling pin to work out any injuries you just inflicted on your dough, and transfer to a baking sheet coated lightly with olive oil.

From there, use your hands to gently press the dough into a larger circle, working repeatedly from the center out to the edges of the circle, until the dough is a circle maybe 1/4 of an inch thick and 15 inches in diameter. And voila! An oven-ready pizza dough. The pizza toppings would be the topic of an entirely different blog, but I went with a simple homemade chunky tomato sauce and some fresh mozzarella. Have the oven preheated to 375 degrees and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes (really, just constantly check until both (a) the chess is melted and (b) the crust looks good).

[Photo sadly unavailable - I was too busy making dinner to remember to take a picture. But, just imagine a 15 inch circle of dough with tomato sauce and grated cheese on top of it]
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[This photo also unavailable - I was too busy eating dinner. Just imagine a thick-crust pizza with a 25% variation of how thick the crust is over the surface, though, and you'll pretty much have it.]

Tasting verdict: Based on the title of this post, you might not be surprised to discover that I really liked how this ended up. Now, admittedly, much of the pizza's goodness came from the sauce turning out much, much better than I expected it to, but the crust itself was pretty good all by itself, too. The only real issue was that the dough didn't rise evenly while baking, which I attribute to my not having a baking sheet large enough to roll the dough to its appropriate thinness. So, some small bits of the dough ended up undercooked, but still delicious, so no complaints there.

Cheese of the week: Stilton (which, as we all know, is one of the flavors of cheese that the moon is made out of!)

50% Whole Wheat Bread

This week, another of those bizarre, extra-long-rising sorts of breads. To start things off: about 28 hours before you want to start eating freshly baked bread, we'll need to prepare two initial bowls of dough-like substances.

First, in a bowl combine 1 3/4 of a cup of whole wheat flour with 1/2 of a teaspoon of salt and 4/3 of a cup of milk. Stir this together until it has the consistency of a very moist dough, then cover and set on the counter. In a different bowl proof 2 teaspoons of yeast in 1/2 a cup of warm water. After a few minutes add in 1 3/4 cups of bread flour, and again stir into a shaggy sort of dough. Cover and set in the fridge for the

Chilly pre-rise (24 hours)
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So, I've been on and off mentioning the Qual for the last little while, and now that it's over I suppose it's best to have done with it. It was just about seven hours of pure joy (counting the absurd amount of time the professor spent giving us really elementary instructions on the first day of the exam), but in retrospect it really wasn't all that bad. Of course, just as with any test, when you've studied the material so much you almost inevitably feel overprepared for things once you actually sit down, get over the last-second panic, and just start taking the thing.

Anyway, I passed the thing, and now I just don't have to worry about it anymore. So, hooray! On the one hand, it's fairly traditional to say that, at the moment you take the Qual, you know more physics than you will at any point in your life. Of course, you'll know more in some intensely specialized field, but since the Qual essentially brings back to mind all of the physics you've learned up to that point, the argument is that at that moment you have the broadest and most general grasp of the subject you ever will. That, needless to say, is nonsense. Assuming there's some slow (but maybe exponential) amount of time for the memory of all the qual material to die away, and assuming that I learn anything in classes this year (perhaps some linear increase in physics knowledge), surely there is some point, probably at some not-well-defined time this semester or, possibly, the next when I will know more physics.
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After 24 hours, take the second bowl out of the fridge and allow to come to room temperature. This might take about two hours or so; a perfect window of time to do some laundry, perhaps, or a problem or two on a homework set. Anyway, once the dough is warm and easy to work with, divide both bowls of dough into 12 pieces each. Put the 24 pieces in a larger bowl, and add in 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast proofed in 2 tablespoons of warm water, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Stir this all together vigorously, and the let it rest for a few minutes. Then, start to knead (it will be the most exceptionally slimy dough to date, but add in only enough flour to keep the dough workable). After all of the ingredients are well integrated and the dough feels smooth and elastic (but again, still quite moist) put in a greased bowl, cover, and let sit for the

First Rising (40 minutes)
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To be honest it feels a little strange now that the exam is over... after spending, as a rough estimate let's say at least 8 hours a day, every day, for a month preparing for the test, I think one of my friends captured the feeling best when he said, "It's like I don't know how to not study for the Qual." A bizarre statement, but very true, I think. The fact that the last exterior obstacle to the degree is simply gone is rather unnerving in a way. Of course, the dissertation and defense will be both much more work and much, much more difficult...but those difficulties feel different, able to be overcome by shear perseverance if necessary, whereas the Qual is something that you could, quite legitimately, work very hard at, try your best, and still not pass.

Anyway, even if I say it feels strange that it's over, don't believe me. It just feels good.
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Punch the dough down, and shape it into a loaf suitable for a 9x5 bread pan. A second rising is not really needed...just let the dough sit for a few minutes, and then wait for the oven to preheat to 400 degrees. Once the oven is to temperature, put in the bread and pour a cup or so of water
into that new steam pan. Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees, and bake for 35 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Pretty good. Actually, I think this loaf perfectly captures both what I like and dislike most about whole wheat breads. The flavor of the bread is great: hearty, just a touch of sweetness, and generally perfect for sandwiches. The texture is somewhere between okay and good, but then the crust is just immensely flimsy and disappointing. Still, on the whole worthwhile.

Currently reading: "Whole Grain Breads," by Peter Reinhart. This book, regardless of any of its other merits, has gained a place in my Valhalla of Literature by being the first time I have seen the word "Baboom!!" in print.