Okay, what I’ve learned so far is the following:
1) Never bake without your glasses! Apparently the expiration date on the yeast wasn’t ’08 it was ’06. So, when I tried to make a LARGE loaf in the machine, it came out like a block of bread, still a little doughy in the middle. Fresh, or as fresh as you can get, ingredients are best. So I will be heading out to Whole Foods or some lace where fresh is queen and get my yeast and start from scratch.
2) Pay attention to the salt you use! Apparently Sea Salt isn’t as salty as regular salt…which is why the first brick/loaf was kind of bland. I thought it was because the flour was kind of old, but when I switched out the sea salt for kosher salt (Just pulling what was in the cupboard) it made all the difference in the world. True, I used the wrong measuring spoon for it….again, cooking without glasses…..so I just added a little more sugar to balance the savor of the salt. If it weren’t for the sense factor from old yeast it’d say it almost tasted like Grandma’s bread, the bread my mother used to make. The whole Kosher vs. sea salt has got me thinking. There are so many different kinds of salt with different saline factors that I’m wondering if I used, lets say pink salt (something I wondered at in Whole Foods….wondering what you’d use pink salt for) would it make the bread a little pinkish? They also have black salt and so on…make grey bread.
So, baking is on hold until I can do some shopping….which should be by Saturday….
Does anyone have any trial and error adventures they’d like to share? Anything to keep me from eating dense tasteless bread would be much appreciated.
