Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 171

Quickly

People are sharing some good tips about the artisan-bread-in-five baking in the comments. I especially like the tip about doing the rising and baking steps on parchment instead of using cornmeal on a bread peel. (Or cookie sheet, in my case.)

I'm getting the hang of this. We haven't bought bread in two weeks!

Noteses

Bread:

I'm getting into the groove. Baking every day, or every other day (two loaves) if tomorrow's going to be busy. So far, only one tomorrow has been too busy.

We like the 100% whole wheat recipe best for everyday bread (sandwiches and toast). Yesterday I played with the light whole wheat recipe a bit—added some honey, and added more whole wheat flour, less white. Baked a loaf this morning and it's lovely: light and fluffy, quite nice in sandwiches. But the crust was too, er, crusty. We...

Mr. Fleischman's Wonderful McBroom

Literary giant Sid Fleischman died on March 17th at the age of 90. I have loved his work since I was a little girl—the McBroom books are some of the first books I remember reading and rereading and howling over and collecting. Even today I can still rattle off a good WillJillHesterChesterPeterPollyTimTomMary- LarryandlittleClarinda! (If I missed a few names in there, it's because I wrote it from memory.)

The amiable Farmer McBroom's surprising triumph over that lowdown dirty swindler, Heck...

Dough Business

I know, I know, another bread post! They'll taper off soon, I'm sure, or morph into notes on the other blog. But since breadmaking was the dominant theme of our week, I want to wrap up the week with my notes.

I can see the 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread recipe being our go-to bread for daily use: it has been delicious as toast and sammiches—when we managed to save some instead of devouring it hot from the oven. I've been cutting the salt way down and the flavor is perfect. Our whole wheat...

Yeah, We Could Live on This

Boy howdy. That whole wheat sandwich bread recipe. It's like one foot in heaven. After we inhaled the first loaf, I noticed chalk grafitti on the side-yard fence:

LIFE IS GOOD

BREAD IS BETTER

That about sums it up.

From the Archives: The Firelings by Carol Kendall

Originally posted in September, 2005.

I'm reading the girls a book I discovered at age ten or eleven and read with immense relish several times over the next few years: The Firelings by Carol Kendall. I'm enjoying it just as much this time around. And it's one of those "oh please, just ONE more chapter" books for the kids.

The Firelings are a halfling people who live in the shadow of a volcano they call Belcher. The village legends tell of Belcher's former life as a Sky Creature who danced a...

How Rose Is Feeling

…about this whole bread thing.

(Today's notes so far: our Henry's is closed for remodeling! I had no idea. Totally threw off my plans. No rye flour at the big supermarket, so today we went with the whole wheat sandwich bread recipe, which I was eager to try anyway. Has honey & oil, so: rich and sweet? Yum? The dough is rising now. Might bake a loaf this afternoon to eat with dinner, or may wait until tomorrow morning. We polished off the last of yesterday's baking at lunch.)

Better Yet, Please Pass the Lemon Curd

We tried our first batch of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day today. I used the "Light Wheat Bread" recipe (a mix of whole wheat and unbleached white flours). It was supposed to make four loaves but we only got three out of it. This just means I get to try another recipe tomorrow.

Notes:

—Very tasty bread, but a bit salty, we thought? I'll reduce the salt in the next batch.

—Fabulous crust and a wonderful crumb. Very pleased with the texture. Just perfect.

—Would definitely double the recipe...

Please Pass the Butter

1) Because he loves me;

2) Because he reads my Facebook page and saw that my old boss left a comment recommending it;

3) Because lately we seem to be going through three loaves a week…

my husband bought me a copy of, yes, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Looks like it might be time to dust off my old bread blog.

Thanks, honey. I'll save you an extra-thick slice.

Crowing over Crow Books

I am loving all these crow book suggestions you are sending me!

Here's a roundup—

Ms. Mental Multivitamin (whose blog has put me in the path of many an excellent read) chimed in with a couple of titles and a link to her many posts singing the praises of crows:

If you haven't read it already, check out Crow Planet (Lyanda Lynn Haupt) and (my favorite) Caw of the Wild (Barb Kirpluk).

Longtime Bonny Glen reader Kay recommended Crow Planet, too, so I'm eager to check it out.

LisaE of Shadybrook Acres ...