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.