Russian Black Bread

Some of you may remember my earlier (disastrous) attempt to make a black bread, but I think it's been long enough for me to give it another go. So, armed with a new recipe, eight more months of bread-baking experience, and a desire to sit around the apartment and delay going in to work for a long as possible today it's time to try a substantially more complicated than average loaf. Fingers crossed.

To start things off, combine 3/4 of a cup of water, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 of a cup of blackstrap molasses, and 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate in a sauce pan, and start heating it. While waiting for the chocolate to melt, start proofing 3 teaspoons of yeast in 1/2 of a cup of warm water. Separately, in a large mixing bowl prepare a mixture of 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 teaspoons of instant coffee mix, 1 teaspoon of onion powder, and 1 teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds.

Once the chocolate is melted and evenly mixed in allow it to cool for a minute, then pour it and the yeast into the mixing bowl, and stir in 2 cups of dark rye flour along with another half-cup of all-purpose flour. Knead for a generous handful of minutes, and try not to breathe through your nose - this one, ominously, already has something of a pungent smell to it... Anyway,put in a greased bowl, cover, and allow to sit for the

First rising (2 hours )
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First week of the semester down, and I have to admit it was something of a rocky start. I'm taking just two classes this semester: one ("Polymer Physics") being taught by my advisor, and the other ("Biophysics") fulfilling the very last of my coursework requirements. Anyway, I think the semester will be substantially easier than my last one, which will of course be very nice, but I somehow still managed to have to spend almost all of this weekend working. And having to spend the full weekend working before there's even been any homework assigned for classes...well that just feels like I must have mismanaged my research time during the week. Not too swift of me.
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Punch the dough down and put in a greased 9x5 bread tin. Recover, set on top of a radiator, and wait during the

Second rising (1 hour and 30 minutes)
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A few days ago, after finishing up some work late at night, I wandered over to a coffee shop and just sat thinking for a while. Which I suddenly realized has been something I do a lot less than I used to. Well, not that I ever was that big a fan of just sitting around, but I always used to take medium-long walks, most days anyway. But here in Illinois I haven't really gotten into the habit of taking walks. I suspect that's because I walk back and forth to work every day (probably averaging 4 miles or so just in doing that), so I'm spending at least as much time physically walking as I ever used to. But of course, you're not really taking a walk if you've got a destination in mind, so you don't really get in the same mindset where you can (figuratively) sit and mull things over.

So, anyway, along with being better about cooking I'm going to have to find some spot where I can just sit, or read the paper in the morning, or something along those lines. Hmm...too bad my two favorite coffee shops closed last semester!
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Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Very interesting, actually! I still haven't really made up my mind as to whether I especially like this bread or not, but the flavor is pretty unlike any loaf I've made so far: a strong hit of fennel when you first bite into it, followed by a progression through the darker rye, molasses, and faintly chocolate-y flavors as you keep chewing. As I said, interesting, and maybe a little bizarre. Anyway, good texture - a bit lighter than I had expected - and with a surprisingly crisp crust.

Whole wheat molasses bread

Sort of a whole wheat variation on anadama bread this week. To start off, put 1/2 a tablespoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of molasses in a mixing bowl. Add 3 teaspoons of yeast that have been proofed in 7/8 of a cup of warm water and 1/4 of a cup of warm milk. Blend together and slowly add 1/2 a cup of all-purpose flour and 1/2 a cup of whole wheat flour to make a medium-thickness batter. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of Crisco, mix thoroughly, and then stir in another 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Knead for a while (this dough is pretty easy to work with) and set aside in a covered, greased bowl for the

First rising (2 hours )
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Since moving into my new apartment this August I've been almost universally happy with it. While cooking bread I've occasionally been suspicious of the oven, though: the loaves I've baked in my new place have come out, on average, more tender and much moister (and hence much tastier but occasionally just a touched undercooked). So, I've off-and-on been wondering if the temperature gauge has been substantially off, but until now I haven't had any particularly strong evidence to that effect.

Earlier in the week I thought I would try a new recipe for a sort of Indian-spiced chicken dish that required baking the chicken in liquid for a while. I cooked everything as directed, except that I accidentally left the chicken in for about 25% longer than I was supposed to - but then, I've cooked some nearly inedible meals in my time, so I figured that at worst the chicken would be too too dry, but I would still eat it. Well, much to my delight, the chicken was absolutely delicious! In retrospect, I should have been tipped off by the fact that the liquid the chicken was cooking in wasn't boiling - or bubbling in the slightest - despite sitting in what was ostensibly a 375 degree oven. That didn't really register at the time, though, so I just merrily kept eating what the relatively dim light in my apartment tricked me into thinking was some tasty dark meat.

Well, I realized with quite a start that when taking the chicken out of the oven I had cut open the piece to see if it was cooked, and that piece, now sitting half-eaten on my plate, had been white meat. Turning on some extra lights confirmed that, indeed, what I thought was dark meat would be more accurately described as almost totally uncooked meat. That was really quite a strange sort of feeling...I mean, what could I do? I had already eaten maybe half a pound of uncooked chicken before realizing anything...not like I could take that back! So, I quietly got up, cleaned my plate, did the dishes, and spent the next three days worried that I was about to get horribly ill. Happily, in fact, that never came to pass, so crisis averted. I do plan to find an oven thermometer the next time I go shopping though...this seems like it should be a correctable problem.
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Punch down the dough, knead for a few seconds, and shape into a roll a bit longer than the greased 9x5 baking tin you'll be using. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, and then gently put 2 1/2 twists into the roll. Put in the tin, cover, and set aside for the

Second rising (1 hour and 15 minutes )
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Anyway, other than that little scare, it's been a pretty quiet week (some days quite literally: I think the only words that have escaped my lips today have been "Just a small hot chocolate, please" and "Thank you.") But it's been nice. Nice to be back at school without the crushing workload that hit me at the end of last semester, nice to have time to work on research without any distractions (or, at least, any distractions not of my own devising)...just nice to have a calm, gradual ease into the semester's start next week.
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Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: One of the more mediocre loaves I've made (or at least, it certainly seems that way compared to last week's bread, which currently ranks among my very favorites so far). Good texture, rather tender, but a fairly forgettable flavor. Well, it'll probably be alright for deli sandwiches at least.

Pusstabrot

Always exciting to add another country to the "Where the Bread I've Baked Comes From" list, and it's Hungary this time! So, this bread gets going in a slightly unusual way (or at least, compared with most of the breads I make): start by roasting 1/2 of a heaping teaspoon of fennel seeds over medium heat in a small saucepan, and then try to use a large soup spoon to grind the seeds (a mortar and pestle might, admittedly, be more convenient here). In a large bowl, combine the fennel with 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar and two teaspoons of salt. Create a little well in the middle of the flour mixture, and pour in 4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast proofed in 1 1/2 cups of warm water, along with 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Gently stir in some of the surrounding flour to create a very thin batter, leaving most of the flour dry. Let this sit, loosely covered, for an hour, when the batter will have bubbled up out of the well. At this point, stir everything together, add another half-cup of flour, and get to knead what will turn out to be a very stiff, resistant dough. Put in a greased bowl, cover, and set aside on the radiator for the

First rising (1 hour and 20 minutes)
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Another trip home, another 8 airports (well, counting three of them twice, that is)... While I generally quite like air travel, this time I was generally less thrilled than usual, and all of the airports started blending together in my mind into one semi-continuous set of glass-steel-cement buildings, this one with a blue-glass-falling-leaf-mobile, that one with a giant wooden sphere, but otherwise not terribly distinguishable from one another. In part, I suspect that feeling is just the result of combining extra airports on this trip with having flown so much over Thanksgiving.

But, of course, that's not to say I didn't have my usual share of fun meetings, this time ranging from a Midwestern psychotherapist to a New England chemical engineer to a teacher at a New York Yeshiva. So, I ask, what is it about airplanes, I wonder? I mean, I consider myself a quite friendly but not terribly talkative person most of the time, yet somehow when traveling by myself I occasionally turn into a regular chatterbox. My current working theory is the novelty of having a completely contained, few-hour, start-to-finish relationship with someone...but I'm not entirely satisfied with that. Any suggestions?

Oh, I should add, one final highlight of my recent travel experience includes finally escaping the Bermuda Triangle of Air Travel that I call the metropolitan Detroit airport with only a tiny, insignificant in comparison, delay of an hour or two on the runway. Hurray!
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Punch the dough down and knead for another minute or so. Shape into a ball, put on a greased cookie sheet, cover, and again put on a nearby radiator for the

Second rising (45 minutes )
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Fake New Year's Resolution...the "fake" one, of course, because I think of New Year's resolutions in much the same way that I think of birthday wishes: namely, if you tell anyone else it just won't happen. So, for the fake resolution, I'm going to try to get back to some (slightly) more adventuresome cooking. When I first moved out here I was, for me, very good about this, trying out a new recipe maybe once a week or so. Since the end of last summer, though, I might have attempted all of one or maybe two new dishes. So, for the sake of saving my taste buds from further boredom, I'll try to resurrect the new-dish-a-week system. And if you (dear reader) would like to help out, I'd be thrilled if you emailed or posted a link to a favorite recipe I could try out. I have just a few vague rules...
1. Not too too much prep time (this one's a bit more flexible, but still...if it takes more than an hour and a half to prepare it won't exactly be easy to fit into the weekday rotation. Still, if it's super-tasty I'll give it a try on some weekend or other)
2. Preferably not super-spicy
3. Preferably super-delicious
4. No tofurkey (.pdf :-))
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15 minutes before the end of the rising, fill the oven's broiler pan with water and start preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Just before putting the bread in the oven, cut a half-inch-deep cross into the top, brush with a mixture of an egg white mixed with a tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt, and sprinkle with a fennel seeds.Bake for 50 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Admittedly, not the most aesthetically pleasing loaf... I'm not really sure why half of the bread decided to explode out like that! Still, I can live with that because this loaf is just straight up delicious. The crust is nicely crispy but not tough, and the fennel flavoring is terrific...I'm not sure why I haven't made a fennel-spiced bread before, but now that I have, well....I want to eat rastons.