Goings on in the kitchen are great these days. Bread baking is proving to be a fun endeavor. When Iris was little I baked all our own bread but got away from the habit with the twins and busy-ness of a bigger family. But it’s becoming a routine again and I’ve done pretty well. I have been using the bread machine to do the kneading and first rise. I used to love doing the mixing and kneading by hand and sometimes miss this part of bread baking, but I just don’t have the time right now.
I’ve always resisted a bread baking machine but Blayne convinced me to try an old machine he had down in the basement. Now that I have figured it out I’m OK with it. I don’t like to do the final rise or bake in the machine because I don’t like the shape of the loaves or that funny hole you get in the middle. I’ve found a really great whole wheat recipe from one of his bread machine cook books. I’d rather use a “respectable” recipe from one of my other baking books, but it actually turned out really great.
My first oops has to do with a sprouted bread I was going to make. I dusted off my sprout jar and soaked 1/2 cup wheat berries. I thought I had to sprout them for 3 or 4 days. I was all proud of myself for rinsing them twice a day and producing some beautiful sprouts. This morning I looked at the recipe so I could make the bread today but at the bottom of the recipe it says to only let the sprouts of the wheat berry get as long as the berry. Well, my sprouts got much longer than that. So now what to do with my sprouts? I guess I’ll just mix some of them in my smoothie and feed the rest to the bunnies outside.
Yogurt making has been fun, too. My first batch of cow milk yogurt was a bit runny. Second batch was superb. I used a powdered starter instead of yogurt for the culture. I also added a bit of powdered milk to the batch to make it thicker and creamier. Next, I have to research how many times I can use this yogurt as a base culture before I have to use a new powder started. Hmmm. I also want to experiment with adding flavors/fruit into the yogurt. I’m fine with mixing fruit, etc. into the yogurt after it is done. But B seems to think I need to figure out how to add it to the yogurt from the beginning. He has requested a coffee flavored yogurt.
Soy yogurt proves a bit more difficult. Here is my first attempt: Yuck!
As you can see it curdled and even ran over the sides of the lids. I used Bryanna Clark Grogan’s recipe from her website. I think a few things went wrong here. I couldn’t find agar powder at the coop so I used agar flakes. I attempted to grind them in my spice grinder, but it just wouldn’t break up. And I couldn’t find my mortar and pestal. Also, her recipe didn’t call for any type of sugar for using unsweetened soy milk but I found that on another website so I added a tablespoon of agave nectar. I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll have to try to find some agar powder then I’ll try another batch. It had a nice sour flavor at least.
It is a process and an experiment but I don’t mind the mistakes – as long as I figure out how to make a fantastic finished product.
I am quite sure our grocery bill is going down but I’ll save that for another post.
