Bread and Knitting

Maybe its the doldrums of winter, but lately the domestic goddess within me has been taking over the non-work hours. Spent a week at the farm, learning to cross-country ski with Paul and his family, now I'm back in CT knitting and baking bread, when I'm not on conference calls.

I haven't posted here any knitting projects lately, but there have been many - finished a sweater in January, several pairs of socks, and I've taken to knitting what are called 'smoke rings' (or sometimes 'wimples'). Basically its a tube that goes over your head. wider at the bottom to sit nicely on your shoulders under a jacket or sweater, and either worn as a cowl neck in lieu of a scarf or - voila! - up over your head if its chilly. I've been using the pattern to test out lace patterns, which is my new knitting fancy. Here's a picture of the latest version I've knit for Claire. My other new knitting discovery is a great website called Ravelry - its a social network, think of it as Facebook for knitters! I highly recommend it to all you knitters out there - you can post your own projects, keep track of them as you knit them, and also view other people's projects, so you can get lots of ideas about patterns and yarn and hints from others. Great site - if you do go there, look me up, I am cakovac, and you can see what I'm working on (who knows, it might be for you!!)

Also, it was my mother's birthday on Feb 20 - she would have been 96. Don't know if it was that reminder of her, but I started baking bread this week and I can't seem to stop! She had this great recipe for a lovely braided loaf that had eggs and milk in it and the top was brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. I remember it as a royal pain to make, but there are several modern improvements that I'm working on, and also learning more about bread-making - so here's her recipe if you want to try.

Scald a cup of milk - that means heat it until it just about boils and there's a little skin on the top, then turn the heat off. This part is a real pain, because now you have to wait for the milk to cool. To help cool it off, add a half stick (4T) margarine (if the margarine is frozen, even better!), also 1T salt and 2T sugar - swirl it in the bowl to dissolve the solids. Although it seems old-fashioned, its best to do the scalding step - why, you ask? For those seeking the answer to this question and even more bread enlightenment, I highly recommend Shirley Corriher's book, "Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed". Here you will find that there is apparently a protease enzyme found in milk that degrades the gluten proteins in the flour - which are what give yeast breads their nice chewy, stretchy texture - and likely keep the bread from rising as nicely. Scalding destroys this enzyme - 'denatures' it, for you biochemists - and you get nice chewy, well-risen bread. So we keep the scalding step.

Put the milk and melting butter mixture into the mixing bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer and let it sit until it is room temperature. While you are waiting, get a little bowl and put in 1/4 cup of slightly warm water, dissolve 1/4 t of sugar in it, then sprinkle on top an envelope of dry yeast (not instant rising, regular yeast). This will soften the yeast and also 'proof' it - it will start going to work on the little bit of sugar in the water and be nice and bubbly when you add it to the bread. If you have bad yeast, it won't bubble and you should start over with good yeast - or you'll be making flatbread!

While you're waiting you can also sift about 4 cups of flour. Flour is probably the most important ingredient in making bread. Mom's recipe called for Sapphire flour - but that is sometimes hard to find, depending on where you live in the country. Interestingly, Cleveland women in the 40's had a particular preference for this flour, according to notes at the Cleveland Memory Project, which might explain why Mom's recipe specifies this flour. The Sapphire flour was first produced in 1916, by the newly-formed Montana Flour Mills company - since then the company was acquired repeatedly and now is part of ConAgra. Sapphire flour is made from a hard northern red wheat, which means it has high content of the two proteins (glutenin and gliadin) needed to form the stretchy substance called gluten that gives a yeast bread its chewy (not crumbly) texture. According to Ms. Corriher, these are the best flours to use for yeast bread (but NOT for pastry or pie crust!) and if you can't find Sapphire, you can substitute Robin Hood, Hecker's or King Arthur (unbleached, all purpose) or any flour marked 'bread flour'. The most common all-purpose flours (Pillsbury, Gold Medal) do not have enough proteins for really fine bread.

OK, by now your milk should be cool and your yeast bubbling. Add the yeast mixture and one egg to the bowl, whisk the egg with a fork until it is mixed in well. Now by hand with a wooden spoon or a stiff rubber (I use silicone) scraper, mix in flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between additions to break up lumps and make a smooth batter. By the time you've added 2 and 1/2 cups, the mixture should be sticky and starting to follow the spoon around the bowl in a ball every time you add more flour. Now scrape it all into the middle, clean off your stirring device, and put it on the mixer with the dough hook attachment. Add the last half cup of flour little by little, mixing on the lowest speed (or one higher for a bit) until the dough is balling up nicely, but still a little sticky. Add more flour if necessary, but not more than another 1/3 cup - making the total flour no more than 3 and 1/3 cups. This is a judgement call, and varies with temperature and humidity, so you don't always use the same amount. I always resisted using a machine, but I found when I mixed by hand I almost always used too much flour to avoid sticking to my hands and then I had a bread that was dry. The mixer doesn't care about sticking, and kneads a slightly sticky dough just fine. Once you've got the dough where you want it, put the mixer on medium speed and let it knead the dough for you for 3-5 minutes. That's another benefit of the mixer - it kneads as long as you tell it, and doesn't stop when its arms get tired!

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board, rinse out the mixing bowl and dry it thoroughly. Add 1T of oil (I use olive oil) to the bowl, coat the sides and bottom, coax your dough into a nice ball, tucking the sides under until you have a nice smooth top, plop it into the bowl top-down, flip it over and you have a nice smooth dough ball with the top lightly coated with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean damp towel and place in a warm (not hot), draft-free spot for about 1 and 1/2 hour, until it about doubles in size.

Use cooking spray to lightly grease a loaf pan. Punch down the dough by putting your fist right in the middle of it, then collect the dough and dump it out on a lightly floured board. Collect it all into a ball again, using just enough flour to lightly coat the dough and keep it from sticking. With a sharp knife, divide it into three equal pieces. Roll each piece between your hands to get a 12-inch rope of dough, pinch the three pieces together at one end, then quickly braid the three strands and pinch the other end together. Tucking the ends under, quickly transfer your braid into the greased loaf pan. With a pastry brush, brush a little egg wash (I use EggBeater, which I always have in the fridge) and then sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds (sunflower seeds work, too, although they are not traditional!). Cover the loaf pan loosely with plastic wrap or towel, and let rise a second time for about 30 minutes, or until it's again about double in bulk.

Even after she was pretty blind from macular degeneration, Mom could still bake up a storm. Once when I was there she baked the above recipe and used the dough to bake rolls, which she served fresh and hot at dinner. When she proudly brought them to the table, we dug into the basket, finding to our surprise a variation on her traditional recipe - green sugar sprinkles on top! Given that it was not St. Patrick's day, someone commented on her originality - she looked at him with some irritation, as if he were a profound idiot and said, "Those aren't sugar sprinkles, they're poppy seeds!" Oops! Even though we used to tease her about becoming Mr. Magoo, she could bake a better pie crust blind and in her 90's than I ever will!

On with our bread. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When oven is hot and dough is risen, place the pan on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 1 hour. Check it when its about 50 minutes and if its too brown, turn heat down to 325 degrees for the last 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, then turn loaf out onto a rack and let it cool (no, really - completely cool!) before slicing.

And here's the loaf I finished while writing this post - Don and I will have it for dinner tonight with a pot of homemade soup. Try this bread toasted for breakfast with some real butter and a bit of good jam of your favorite flavor - enjoy!