Baking

You can tell I'm baking; I have flour all over my dark blue Tshirt. Note: don't put on a dark color if you're going to bake. What's ironic is that I was wearing an old shirt, and put this one on to go to my daughter's drama camp play. Then I forgot to take it off when I got home.

What I'm trying to make is Kaiser Rolls. So far, they're not coming out all that well. I haven't eaten any yet, so I can't say how they will taste, but the shape definitely isn't there. I got seduced --again -- by a baking book. At least this time I didn't buy the book -- and it is a pretty good one. I've come to the sorry realization that when they say you should read through a recipe before making it, that doesn't mean 'Oh yeah, I've seen all these steps before'. It means actually reading each step and getting out whats going to be needed. I'm always surprised by that. In this case, the recipe said to preheat a pan in the oven, and then to dump some water in there when the baking starts. My version of a recipe would have that right the hell up front: BILL!!! GET THE DAMN ROASTING PAN OUT AND PUT IT IN THE OVEN RIGHT THE HELL NOW!!! The book (Secrets of a Jewish Baker) was also a little vague on how you make the distinctive shape of the roll. It did describe it, but it used phrases like 'make a karate chop on the dough'. Well, where? By comparison, this page, from The Fresh Loaf, actually shows you. Much better.

So, we'll be eating bread for a while, I think. And washing Tshirts.