Sunday, December 22, 2013

BREADMAKER DISAPPOINTMENT

My new bread maker was delivered the other day.  I quickly brought it inside and opened the top of the box.  It was large. I didn't bother taking the whole machine out of the box.  I then opened the top of the bread maker to see how large the pan was inside.  This was the deciding factor of if I'd keep it or not because there were no dimensions of the pan in the ad for the machine.  When I was looking into bread makers before, I didn't like the shape or small size they were making, and that was about ten years ago.  You'd think they'd change things by now with a desirable shape and size of bread, what most people would want, like the ones in the market.  I was very disappointed.  If the pan was three to four inches wide, that was a lot and it was short so the length of the loaf would be very short.  The pan was very tall.  Who would want a bread that was shaped like a large lump?  Back it went.  The machine was so big for the pan size.  Was it really even worth keeping it around and storing it?  It would take up a lot of space.  So I found more baking pans in different sizes.  I found really nice 10" X 5" baking pans at our local discount store.  I bought two at $6.00 each.  Now to find recipes to fit them or I'll just have to adapt smaller bread pan recipes.  I'd rather not do that, but if I have to do that to get a decent size and shape for a loaf of bread, like the ones you get in the market, so be it.

I also went to our local health foods store in order to get whole wheat bread flour.  I couldn't find a product like that at the regular markets.  I didn't even know they made whole wheat bread flour.  On the way into the store, they had a few things discounted.  Among them were packages of sourdough starter.  I once tried to make my own starter only to come up with a gunk type of mass with mold on it.  So I thought I'd give this sourdough starter packet a try.  It looks like a lot of work, but I'll try it.  The instructions sound like a chemistry project, but I'll give it a try.

Last night, I just had to bake something, so I made a home made pizza with hand made dough, sauce and fresh toppings.  It was delicious.  I must say though that I wanted to use some yeast that was expired, but with pizza dough, you really don't need that high of a dough.  It rose a little with the expired yeast, but I really didn't wait for it to rise that long, so that could be why it didn't rise that high.  I used the dough hook in my food processor to mix the dough up in no time.  The texture was great and the taste was excellent.

Today I plan to tackle the sourdough starter kit and possibly make some bread (one in my 8 1/4" X 4 1/4" pan and one in my new 10" X 5" pan).  Then in a few days, after the sourdough starter is ready, I'll make some sourdough bread (hopefully) if the starter turns out OK.

Wish me luck!

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