Comments on: Whole-wheat cranberry bread

By: Joshy

Joshy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:27:35 +0000

Hey, your Never-Shutting-Up helps out this house so I’m not complaining about it! Sigh, there is always more to experiment with, if the lazy doesn’t have anything to say about it, anyway.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:05:05 +0000

I always use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. It’s just better!

Let’s have a bread-baking/X-Files party sometime. I need to bake more and have an even worse case of the lazy than you do.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:06:49 +0000

The key to shaping boules is to kind of pull the edges under, towards the center, and pinch them together – if the top isn’t smooth and round just keep pulling edges more towards the under-side center till it is. It looks kind of like a balloon before you plop it down on the tray. It’s much easier to shape kneaded bread, too, than, that unkneaded rosemary bread you tried, because it keeps its shape better.

There is such a thing as bread flour which is awesome – tastes like white but has more gluten or something due to magic – but I always just get all-purpose and whole wheat because having 3 types of flour seems excessive, and all-purpose is okay for sweeter, lighter baked goods too such as cakes and scones where bread flour would be bad (although cake flour for these purposes is double plus good! But again, I never buy it because of the lazy.) I’ve never tried self-rising because tbh it sounds not unlike dark magic and I don’t know how it would interact with regular leavening. For breads, to get something like the effect of bread flour, sometimes I substitute ~1/4-1/3 of the flour in a recipe for whole wheat and leave the rest all-purpose.

Also ask me questions about baking if you want me to NEVER SHUT UP

By: Joshy

Joshy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:50:02 +0000

Those are impressive looking, as Gloria said! Honey & butter aren’t cheating if it works; all’s fair in baking. After I form the first boule, all effort at shaping goes out the window & the rest appear as oddly strange & mysterious blobs. I need to work on this more.

On flour, do you have a preference on which to use? (Quick-Rising or Self-Rising vs. All-Purpose, etc.) Whole Wheat is distinct and it’s purpose makes sense but I’ve not dealt with the rest.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:09:31 +0000

I love how perfectly round and delicious they look! Also, cranberries and honey are a winning combination. Definitely will try this recipe if I feel up for making bread sometime!