The Bread Project Week 2: No Knead Wheat

In an effort to not overtax the air conditioner, D and I close off the kitchen during the summer. Any use of the oven makes the room unbearable. So will someone explain to me why I chose the summer to start my bread making adventure? Ah, that's right, I'm a crazy

Anyway- onward!

The recipe came from my favoritest food blog: Macheesmo. Every time he puts up a recipe, I want to go out and make that thing. Per French Culinary Institute-student and coworker Betty's suggestion that (loaf 1) may have been over-kneaded, I went the no-knead route.

The Recipe: No Knead Whole Wheat Bread (cookie sheet method)*

The Verdict: Kelly needs to learn to follow directions.

I thought the dough looked a little dry upon first mix, so I added more water. Once it rested overnight though, the dough was waay too wet. There are no pictures of the kneading and shaping process since I was completely overwhelmed and my hands covered in sticky sticky dough.

Much flouring and slight amounts of freaking out later, and then after some resting time and ovening, we ended up with these:

That picture makes them look so much better than they did in my kitchen. IRL they're pasty as all get out. Should've let them cook a little longer. Here's the inside:

Ahh well I enjoyed the bread, especially toasted with a little butter. And it made for great french toast!

This was hands-off enough I'll most likely do it again, and soon. There's a variation on the site that looks especially delicious...

* I won't post the recipe because really, go check out that site. He's got carrot cake pancakes! And beet burgers!

The Bread Project Week 1: Dense but Edible

My first attempt at bread making was a semi-failure. Or, to look at it another way, it was a semi-success! Hooray!

My problem: I picked a book (100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood) based on the pictures. Scoff all you want, but honestly I'm a sucker for a pretty loaf of bread. And this book was full of them. Beyond that it cost nearly the exact amount I had left on my Barnes & Noble gift card.

I picked the most basic recipe in the book (white bread) and followed what little instructions there were to the best of my ability. When I went to knead the dough- it was tough. Still, what came out made my apartment smell delicious! And it looked pretty to boot:

The crust was lovely, but the inside was a bit dense. Googling leads me to believe there wasn't enough water, but after talking with a woman at work who's taking pastry classes at the French Culinary Institute (awesome, right?), it could've just been atmospheric issues or too much kneading.

Ah well. It improved with toasting and was great for sandwiches. So all isn't lost. I may come back to this recipe eventually, but I think I'll look for a basic loaf from a book more suited for beginners.

The Bread Project - Introduction

Bread is amazing. And delicious.

picture found here. it makes me so hungry

It can be as simple as flour and water, yeast and salt...but there's something kind of scary and mysterious about the process to me. I've always wanted to learn to make it, but then bread- good bread, even- is so cheap and ubiquitous in grocery stores there's really no need. Lately though I've started thinking about the Zombie Apocalypse. Who knows what's going to happen to all the Wegmans-es and Italian Bakeries around my apartment when society collapses. So it's about time I learned to make my own.

Hence:

The Bread Project

The Goal: Learn to make bread, all different types, well.

The Process: A loaf a bread a week...with a little wiggle room. Start with the basics, though knowing me I won't want to do any once recipe too many times. Work up to fancier styles and loaves. Become awesome at making all of them.

This whole thing will most likely be updated once I've gotten a grip on what my goals actually are. One thing I know about myself is that if I don't start something when inspiration strikes, I'll often start making up excuses and never try it. So instead of thinking, I am doing.

I've picked up a few books from stores and the library, though I'm often picking which pictures make me the hungriest. So if anyone has any suggestions on good places to start feel free to comment.

The Zombie-Apocalpse Survival Project

I have a thing - obsession? maybe* - for zombies. That's not to say I love any awful zombie movie that comes along, but I think there are a lot of amazing stories out there in the genre. My absolute favorites though aren't movies, they're books by Max Brooks: The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. The guide is a little dry (it is basically a manual), but World War Z takes the familiar pandemic story in an interesting, smart direction. This isn't a book review blog so I won't go much further than to say just read it!

Anyway, there's a passage in World War Z that's been on my mind lately. Later in the book- spoiler alert, I guess?- once people have regained enough control to start rebuilding society, they realize most of the population has no useful skills. They had office jobs or retail jobs, sat at computers for 40 hrs a week and in front of the tv for the rest of the time. Even if they worked in manufacturing it was with complex machinery that is probably broken, or it was with some small part of the process- not the big picture.

I've been thinking more and more that while I do craft and make and create, I'm not that skilled in many basic, useful things. Like making my own clothes. Or really, cooking. I can get by but come on, I can't even make bread!

So I'm announcing my new project: The Zombie-Apocalypse Survival Project! (ZASP!) which will be broken down into a few sub-projects. For now, let's start with two:

• The Bread Project
  
• The Clothing Project
  

Look for future posts to delineate the specifics of each though you can get the picture by the names alone I'm sure. I wanted to include a The Garden Project, but it's not feasible in my current apartment situation.

ZASP! in general though isn't just really about zombie apocalypses, though that's probably what will motivate me most (kidding...maybe?). My job requires me to sit in front a computer for 40 hrs a week working on something fleeting, that appears on screens around the country but has no physical form. Crafting gets me working with my hands, but I often feel my projects are a little...impractical. That's not to say I'm going to stop making bottle cap earrings or other ridiculous things, but if I could balance those with something useful I'd feel better.

So what do you think? I'm kind of a novice in both of my projects so any suggestions or resources to start out with would be appreciated!

*...probably...definitely