I started with 6 cups of liquid, which should have been a tip-off. The brown bowl (already 1/2 full!) holds the "sponge," which is the liquid with a mere 2 cups of flour added.
Then I added more flour. And more, and more, and more. The recipe called for "at least" 10 cups of flour to be added to the sponge. This would have been a warning, had I been reading my recipe carefully at all! As it is, I ended up emptying my white flour bin, and going over to wheat flour to finish the job. Not really a big deal, but I try to follow bread recipes exactly the first time I do them.
You have to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Jack has his own whisk and spoon for helping me cook. These aren't even baby toys -- they're legitimate kitchen items that were in my collection long before he arrived!
Chris, if you're reading this you will note I'm wearing the shirt you left at my house two Christmases ago. :) Also don't be mad about me using white flour. That's not my usual. Honest! :P
So here is the unrisen behemoth bread lump. I had to put it into THREE bowls to rise, because it would have overflowed any other way. (Doubly so, with the salt missing, so I'm glad I was cautious!) My wedding/engagement rings are on there to show you the scale. The dang thing was big enough to swallow a cat!
So anyway, I'm trying out a bunch of new recipes, and this one is from a restaurant cookbook. I thought I had cut it down to size, but obviously not! I was so dazzled by having to add 10-12 cups of flour that I completely forgot to add the 2 Tbsp of salt during that step.
So now I have five very fat, happily risen, tasty-looking and completely saltless loaves.
At least they're still basically tasty, as we discovered when we dug into the first one. They definitely need something to accompany them, though. Come to think of it, they may become French toast for the next three months or so. :)
11 comments:
Make them into garlic bread with Parmesan cheese on top and you will be fine.
I SOOOOO don't recognize the shirt at all, so I won't hold it against you.
AND, I do hold the white flour thing against you. You won't find any of that *^%& in my house :) Just kidding. At least you are making your own bread.
Perhaps you are subliminally cooking for a 4th...?!
That's an awesome, primordial ooze of dough. I was kind of expecting a tendril/maw to reach up out of the goop and consume your rings.
Chris: Sounds like giant croutons, which sounds excellent! :) And I plan on transitioning it over to wheat bread, but I like to know what the original recipe looks like before I tinker.
Seb: I certainly hope not.... 3 is quite enough for now, thanks!
In Melissa's defense, she is always handing me wheat flour things and saying, "HOW TASTY! Better than the ORIGINAL!"
Slice it, put it into freezer bags and then thaw as many as you need for whatever you are doing. I think toasting lightly and spreading with freshly made pesto is good too. :)
Oh, I've been craving pesto for weeks! That sounds like a very good vehicle for it. :)
And I see we're on the same track with the usage, since it's all in the freezer already. :)
This had me laughing out loud! I can't imagine making that much bread. But at least it came out well!
The good thing about making that much bread at one time is that it's not much harder than making just one or two loaves, and I don't have to make bread again for a loooong time! :)
But non-fresh bread tastes like ass!
(Not Americanism, just for you)
I have to agree, but that's why you douse it with pesto, garlic, french-toast-custard, and so on. Or I might make some of it into bread crumbs. It's definitely not up to the task of being eaten on its own. At this point I just don't want to lose my 13 cups of flour that went in to the nonsense!
How many cups do you get to a hogshead anyway? That must be at least half a firkin.
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