I made yeast bread for the first time in ages today. Back in college I
used to make 4 loaves at a time using the recipe from The Tasajara Bread
Book. It was a big production, took the whole day, messed up the whole
kitchen. I remember discovering that if you follow the directions, it
really isn't that hard. Today I made 2 loaves of the sour cream bread
from Beard on Bread:


1 package active dry yeast
3 Tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups sour cream
1 Tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 - 5 cups white flour.


It turned out that I had only 1 cup sour cream so I used sweet cream for
the other cup. I used mostly unbleached all-purpose white flour but
substituted one cup of mixed oat flour and whole wheat. It must be a
holdover from my health food days. Plain white flour seems so evil to
me. As I was making the bread, the amount of salt seemed high to me,
but I really was trying to stick to the recipe despite the substitutions
so I used the full amount. A minute later, I turned back to the
instructions to check on something and saw where Beard says that he
likes that much salt but that you can cut back the amount to taste. I
did find the end result to be overly salty.


My first problem was in proofing the yeast. It wouldn't bubble and
foam. I thought maybe the water was too cold, didn't want to microwave
it for fear of getting it too hot, ended up putting it in a small
toaster oven that had been pre-heated, then turned off. It took 15
minutes, but when I was satisfied that the yeast was good (and there was
no reason to think it wouldn't be as the expiration date was in the far
future and I'd gotten it at the supermarket), I proceeded.


Kneading turns out to be one of those things that you never forget how
to do. It's fun and satisfying to feel the dough change under your
hands until it gets that wonderful springy elastic feel. I was sure I'd
never figure out what "double in bulk" looks like, but it wasn't that
hard. My college apartments all had gas pilots which made the oven the
perfect place for letting the bread rise, but now we have electric. I
pre-heated the oven to 200 degrees, turned it off and used the oven for
rising again. It worked.


At the last minute, I decided to make one regular loaf in the loaf pan
and make the other loaf into "snails." That's where you roll out the
dough, brush on butter, honey, jam, sprinkle raisins, nuts, cinnamon,
whatever, roll it up, then slice and lay them flat on a cookie sheet. I
used butter, blueberry jam, raisins, the slightest amount of cinnamon
(Jim doesn't like too much) and nutmeg.


I got the snails out when they were perfectly lightly browned. I forgot
the loaf and left it in the oven too long so it is overly brown.


Results: The bread is too salty. I know how to fix that for next time.
For the sweet snails, I should use a sweeter dough, but this one
wasn't bad. The "slight tang" that Beard mentioned turns out to be too
tangy for me. I'm glad I didn't use the full amount of sour cream. I
should use apricot or raspberry jam next time. I forgot why I bought
the blueberry. Did I think I was in a rut? I really don't like
blueberry that much. The texture and crumb are perfect. Really, I'm
very impressed with myself. I'd forgotten that bread is hard to mess
up. People think it is tricky because you have to wait for it to rise
and know how to judge elasticity of texture, but it is really easier
than cakes and cookies. Using a little oat and whole wheat flour was fine.


Next time I think I'll try saffron bread with currants or maybe a
yeasted coffee cake.


--Lia