Lavash

Well, after making a quintessentially New England loaf last week, I thought it only fitting to go with something a bit more international this time. So, this week it's lavash (also spelled lavosh, lahvosh, and so on), as another request from Masha. As an aside, other than it's variety of spellings, lavash also apparently has a variety of meanings...trying to look it up online quickly reveals that it is both "a leavened flatbread of Armenian origin" and "an unleavened Armenian flatbread." Go figure. Anyway, I've gone with a leavened version; hopefully it'll be slightly more lunch-appropriate.

This is a fairly easy (and quick) bread to make: start off by proofing 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in just less than 1 cup of warm water mixed with 3/4 of a tablespoon of sugar. After a few minutes, mix together with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, and 1 3/4 cups of bread flour. (If you guessed that that ratio of flour was dictated less by my recipe and more by the contents of my cupboard, you'd be correct!)

Anyway, knead for an extra-long amount of time (I wasn't really paying attention, but longer than usual, despite how easy the dough is to work with), and then put in an oiled bowl, cover, and let stand for the

First rising (1 hour and 35 minutes)
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Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure of having one of the most surreal experiences of my time so far here in the Midwest. One of my co-workers needed help running an errand for the local bike co-op and, as it turned out, needed help getting a tandem bike (with a small trailer to haul some stuff...hence the errand) there and back. Well, I had never ridden a tandem bike before, but why not, right?

Well, it turned out this was no normal tandem bike, but rather a special one that featured the person steering facing in the usual, forward-looking direction, but had the second person (a.k.a. "me" in this case) looking backwards. (And, as it turns out, having to pedal backwards as well.) This, while mildly headache-inducing during turns, was also incredibly amusing. Pedaling on the street, waving, and getting utterly bemused looks from drivers directly behind the bike was quite the experience. To be fair, the bike is a pretty bizarre sight, so I can't blame folks for getting a chuckle out of it (and, again to be fair, I'm sure my having to take a phone call while merrily pedaling backwards looked doubly peculiar). Oh, I also got quite a kick out of the small mirror attached to the bike helmet I was borrowing, allowing me to see forwards if I were to so choose.

But, I think my favorite moments, more than just looking backwards at traffic, were while we were biking on the bike paths around campus, and so were passing students walking on the sidewalks. There was something interesting in getting to see the bewildered expressions and double takes of students as we passed by, followed by the immediate checking of those expressions as they realized that I, looking and pedaling backwards as I was, could see them.

Then, of course, there was the delicious coda to the whole thing...appearing in the form of a fantastic "thank-you" pecan pie a few days later...A trade I'm pretty sure I would make any day of the week!
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Punch the dough down, and then knead for another 5 minutes or so. Divide the dough into six roughly equal portions, roll into little balls, cover, and let rise.

Second rising (30 minutes)
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So, happy as I was about the whole tandem bike thing, there were a pair of things I was mildly disheartened by this week. First, Moonstruck, my third-favorite coffee shop suddenly and mysteriously closed, with no warning whatsoever. Now, I'm not at all sure that it was actually my third-favorite coffee-shop...I don't really have a set ranking...but I certainly did like it. And, with its combination of late hours, good study or relaxing atmosphere, and excellent desserts, it's certainly the one I visited the most. So, I was sad to see it go.

Second, today I was shredding some cheese (cheddar from Ilchester, if you were wondering) to go with the taco salad I was making for dinner, when I happened to notice on the package the following advisory: "WARNING: Contains milk!" Well, of course, I was rather amused at the exclamation mark, but otherwise sad that a block of cheese had to have a warning that it contained milk. I mean...really? That's just one or two steps removed from a jug of milk labeled "WARNING: Milk contains milk!"
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Set the oven to 400 degrees. While it's heating up, roll out each ball into a very flat um...shape. Aim for either a rectangle or circle, but for aesthetic reasons I'd recommend not being as indecisive as I apparently was while making these. In any event, brush the tops of each portion with cold water, and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Nice! Really, the bread tastes pretty much like the recipe seems like it would. But the texture is excellent: the bread is just thick enough to avoid being a crispy cracker, but thin enough to be more distinctive than just any other slice of bread. I'm a little sceptical about whether the pieces would keep for very long, but somehow...somehow I'm not sure that'll be an issue.

Anadama, Mark II

A new recipe for one of the better early loaves we made...So, start out by proofing 3 scant teaspoons of yeast in 1/4 of a cup of warm evaporated milk. (Full disclaimer: recipe does not call for evaporated milk...but it's been sitting on my cupboard shelf for too long now, and I wanted to come up with some way to use it.) After a few minutes, add another 1 1/4 cups of evaporated milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1/4 of a cup of molasses. Stir in 1/2 a cup of medium-grind cornmeal and then 4 cups of all-purpose flour (half a cup at a time). Knead for about 7 minutes, adding enough flour so that the dough is nice and elastic but still slightly moist and sticky. Put in a greased bowl, cover, and realize that the only place in the apartment warm enough to have the dough rise is the oven, turned to its lowest setting. Ah, Autumn finally comes to the Midwest.

First Rising (1 hour and 20 minutes)
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The real reason, of course, that I'm making this loaf this week is that I've just bought my plane ticket (engaged at enormous expense, it rather seems to me) home for Thanksgiving vacation, so I thought an appropriately New England bread was called for. As last year was the very first time I had failed to be home for Thanksgiving, I am quite excited to make it back this year

Speaking of those plane tickets, though... Now, I don't particularly want to complain; indeed, I've had some convoluted air travel adventures in the past, and I'm a big believer in sitting back, taking the almost inevitable delays with an amused smile, and just seeing what happens. However, looking at just the expected itinerary for this upcoming trip (let alone what nearly mandatory missing connections are going to make the trip in reality), my confidence is already a little shaken about this one. In my ideal world, if I had to come up with a flight pattern to get home, wouldn't it just be Chicago to Maine? Heck, since Maine airports are so small, I'll even throw in a plane transfer in Boston. And, if I were to want to stop at Williams along the way, surely we can just go from Chicago to some upstate New York airport, and from there to Boston.

All of this I would fully expect, and would be pretty happy with. What, before I actually bought these tickets, I just couldn't even imagine was that Illinois - Massachusetts - Maine would, in addition to all of the above airports, also involve stops in Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Remind me, how can that possibly be reflective of a sensible system of air travel?
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Punch the dough down, knead for a minute or two, then shape into a loaf and put into a greased 9x5 pan. Cover, return to the oven, and let sit for the

Second Rising (1 hour)
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Anyway, other than the excitement of buying plane tickets, not a terribly interesting week. I'm happy to say I'm feeling much better than last week.... but otherwise, I've just been doing the usual mix of work, research, with maybe slightly higher levels of sleep and chicken noodle soup than usual. Hopefully, now that I'm feeling better, I'll have more to report next week.
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Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Enjoy the fact that this bread is substantial enough to be sliced while still quite fresh out of the oven.

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Tasting Verdict: Quite good. It's a little hard for me to compare with the last time I made a loaf of anadama, as my memory isn't quite that good. Still, rereading my old tasting notes, it's clear that this is a much richer, denser loaf than the last time around. I'm still really a fan, though, of the extra texture that the cornmeal adds.

Cooking Disaster of the Week: Chicken and rice noodles with a Thai peanut sauce. Somehow, I continue to be totally incapable of making a decent Thai food dish. The noodles always seem to end up with the consistency of one solid blob of mush, and the flavor is, without fail, too muted and vague...One of these days I'll get it, but clearly not this time around...

Daniel's Cardamom Bread

Last week, you may recall, I quite accidentally found myself in possession of rather more cardamom than I knew what to do with. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, this week I've decided to try to whip up some sort of cardamom loaf.

So, to start off, proof 3 teaspoons of yeast in 3/4 of a cup of warm milk along with 1 tablespoon of sugar. After a few minutes, add 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 beaten egg, and 2 teaspoons of cardamom. Stir in 1 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all purpose flour. Knead for about 8 minutes, keeping the dough a little bit moister and stickier than usual. Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and leave alone for the

First rising (1 hour and 45 minutes)
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Some days, there just really isn't much to say. To be honest, nothing about the past week particularly stands out...just the usual mix of research and problem sets, with nothing more noteworthy than usual going on in either.
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Punch the dough, which will have grown to maybe 150% of its original size, and place in a greased 9x5 pan. Recover, and let sit for the

Second rising (45 minutes)
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Perhaps, other than the fact that week really wasn't remarkable in any way, that I'm not feeling overly chatty is that I think I'm coming down with a cold. Which means that leaning over a keyboard doesn't feel so terrific right now. Oh well.
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Bake at 375 degrees for 32 minutes. Let cool, slice, and enjoy

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Tasting verdict: Well, thanks to that cold, I'm not entirely sure. While it might just be the cold messing up how I'm perceiving tastes at the moment, this loaf feels a little off. It's not that the cardamom is overwhelming...it just feels like it isn't properly balanced out with... well, of course, I haven't the foggiest what does balance out cardamom out. Any suggestions for the next time around?

Currently reading: Just finished that Icelandic mythology book I was talking about...kind of a fun read! I think it's nice once in a while to read books that just have a very different rhythm to their sentences and paragraphs. This one was something like a prose version of Beowulf in that respect. Anyway, I haven't started it yet, but next on my bookshelf is "Consider the Lobster," a collection of David Foster Wallace essays.

Saffron Bread

Well, I now have saffron to use up, so I flipped through my recipes until I found a relatively simple recipe...here's my version of it.

Start out by boiling 1/4 of a cup of water and pouring it over a generous pinch of saffron threads. While that's cooling down, proof 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in a mix of 3/4 of a cup of warm milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

After a few minutes, pour those two liquid mixtures into a mixing bowl, and add 1/2 a tablespoon of salt and 3 cups of all-purpose flour. Now, I'm not sure why, but this ended up being the most rock-solid, difficult to knead dough I've made in a long, long time. As a result I'm afraid I might have under-kneaded this one a little bit, which in turn was potentially reflected in the end result....we'll see. Anyway, put the kneaded dough in a greased bowl, cover, and set aside for the

First rising (2 hours)
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So, this was my week to showcase my apparent inability to get the food I was aiming for. First, I was at my favorite cheese shop, looking for my cheese of the week. After finally settling on my choice, I asked to have a section of the wheel of double-cream gouda, thinking it would go well with lunch this week. Well, while I was searching the rest of the store for this and that, the person behind the counter sliced the cheese, wrapped it up, and put it in a bag. I was quite happy with that, until I got home, opened the bag, and discovered that I had been given not double-cream gouda, but a triple-cream brie! Okay, well, admittedly, not exactly the worst thing that could possibly happen, but I was still pretty surprised. I mean, "brie" and "gouda" don't exactly sound that similar...

I have to admit, though, that the second time something like this happened to me this week, it was entirely my fault. I was trying to pick up a small jar of cinnamon, and there were really quite a few to chose from on the shelf. So, forgive me if I didn't exactly pay attention to which one I picked up...all I cared was that when I looked down into the shopping cart, I saw something that, rotated around as the jar was, looked like it ended in "...amon." Well, that'll teach me, as I now find myself in possesion of a small jar of cardamom. Which I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with. (So, incidentally, if you have any suggestions, do send them along!)
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Punch the dough down (it will have risen maybe 150% or so), knead for another minute, and then put in a 9x5 bread pan. Cover again at let rest for the

Second rising (1 hour and 30 minutes)
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Went to the yearly Asian film fest at Boardman's again, where I saw "Train Man"...
Immediate reaction: most obtrusive use/misuse of music in a movie I've seen
Immediate generalization: Asian film is strange.
Slightly more considered modification: But not more so than the independent cinema of english-speaking countries.
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Despair a bit that the bread isn't looking so shapely. Sigh twice, then bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees, then bake for another 25 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: First, let me say from the outset that this is probably the most aesthetically challenged loaf I've yet made. But that's okay, this is the "tasting verdict," after all, and while this won't be winning any bread beauty pagents, it does actually taste pretty good. Really just a nice, substantial sandwich-type loaf, but with a nice added saffron flavor.