FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Ohhhh Crusty!

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I made bread!  Technically this isn’t my first encounter with home made bread.  Looking back, I’m fairly certain my mom planted Christmas present ideas in my head, presents we could both use.  That’s the only explanation I can think of for me asking for and Santa actually bringing a bread machine at age TEN!

I vaguely remember using the bread machine, but clearly remember thinking the machine bread was disgusting.  It’s because of the vague memories that I considered tonight to be my first bread making experience.

I googled “Best breads to make with a Kitchen Aid”, which led me to this recipe.

(I used Earth Balance in lieu of the butter and egg white.)

The Kitchen Aid Dough Hook worked like a dream.

The real reason I chose this recipe is that it only required two 1-hour dough rising sessions rather than days of waiting.  One day… one day I’ll have the patience for really super awesome bread.

But today, I’m sticking with two hour total wait time bread.

I imagined “punching the dough” to be a lot more fun.

My engineerness came out in full force as I rolled the dough to be exactly 12″x15″.

Ehhh…  Close enough?

The dough followed the steps the recipe called out quite nicely.

And then it was taste time!  When I cut the first slice, my first thought was that it seemed a little on the dense side.  This bread was most definitely not in the same league as the crusty, squishy, West coast sourdoughs that I dream of making some day.  But my bread, my two hour total wait time bread, had a nice hard crust, a decently squishy inside, and was perfect for sopping up the remaining scalloppini sauce on my dinner plate.

Now that I have a starter bread under my belt, I’m ready for the next loaf level!

Sorta Pop, Sorta Flop

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If you recall, the non-food highlight of my Valentines day was being able to submit my itemized taxes.  As soon as I received notification that my return had been accepted by the IRS, I rushed out to buy this.

Did you know that you can use Bed, Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons at Macy’s??  Well, you can!  And on top of that discount, there was a $30 mail-in rebate as well.  Thank you Presidents’ Day (and Uncle Sam)!

What to make, what to make first…

I had planned on researching some sort of bread so I could utilize the dough hook, but…  I spent a good portion of  today in the sun (80’s and sunny = perfect pool weather) which made me a tad on the lazy side.  I opted to browse through the Kitchen Aid book to see if there was something I could modify that would use only ingredients I currently had in my kitchen.

Popovers!!!

Modified Popover Recipe

1/2 Cup Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Water

1/4 Cup Tofutti Sour Cream

1/2 Tablespoon Earth Balance

1 Egg

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Mix ingredients together until smooth.  Pour batter into greased/floured, oven-safe ramekins until they are halfway full.  Set ramekins on cookie sheet and place in a non-heated oven.  Set oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

My popovers didn’t exactly pop over.  This could have had something to do with either the modifications or preheating the oven to 350 prior to reading the cool oven instructions.  I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t look every bit as beautiful as the popover I had pictured in my head.

BUT!  These dense little flopovers were pretty darn good.   They reminded me of a cross between biscuits and French toast, which is a mighty decent combination in my book.  So decent, in fact, that I ate all four flops.