It looks so sad and dwarfed in its pan. The crust was also really thick and painfully crunchy. Yet, I didn’t think the pan was the problem. Something else must have been wrong. I turned to Megan, my cousin and cooking/baking extraordinare, who suggested that my yeast was bad and that I wasn’t kneading for long enough. I used new yeast and kneaded until the end of time last night and…drum roll please…it was still a failure. Truth be told, I was too ashamed to get photo evidence of my most recent let down.

On the bright side, loaf number 5 wasn’t as dense and was larger than the one above. Megan suggests that I knead by hand and not with my “handy” mixer, so we’ll try that once this loaf runs out. I also think I need to let it rise for much longer since the weather is pretty chilly these days.

One small victory was when Matt got home from practice, he asked for some of the partially failed bread! I thought last batch would have led to eternal breadmaking distrust. Yet, his “thumbs up” while chewing is encouragement enough to continue on. I’ll keep you all udpated.

]]> http://emilyandmatt.org/blog/family/close-but-no-loaf/feed/ 1 http://emilyandmatt.org/blog/happily-married/in-the-kitchen-with-christine/ http://emilyandmatt.org/blog/happily-married/in-the-kitchen-with-christine/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:27:46 +0000 Emily http://emilyandmatt.org/blog/happily-married/in-the-kitchen-with-christine/ I love to bake. Well, the act of baking isn’t nearly as fun as devouring the sugary goodness that comes as a result. Bridesmaid Christine also likes to bake, so we decided to make pumpkin bread to celebrate the coming of fall–which weather wise is about to come any day now here in the Bay Area.

Matt took the camera that day, so unfortunately we have no fun photos to share. So, to keep things interesting, I’ll post a fun picture of us:

Now do you recognize her, wedding readers? Good! It’s so funny, people always think we’re sisters. We are also birthday buddies, so the first part of August is always a blast. Anyhoo, back to baking…

We doubled the recipe and had so much batter that we had two attempts to mix the dry and wet ingredients. We filled a bundt cake pan, two mini loaves and a star pan. Turns out, a star pan is really hard to cook evenly, in case you wanted to know.

Here’s the recipe, which we followed to a T, except that we added chocolate chips and had a little less pumpkin to work with:

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin purée
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Preparation:
Grease and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin and oil.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; add pumpkin mixture. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves of pumpkin bread.
(Source)

We also made whipped cream, which Christine’s baker friend, Maxine, told us was actually sweet butter because we blended it too long. Whatever it was, it was absolutely delicious complemented the bread well!

This baker friend also had informed Christine of a time-saving, “green” tip: preheating the oven isn’t necessary for modern ovens. I tested this out last night with pizza and it came out just fine without preheating. This was great news for me, since I am an impatient cook who likes to save money and energy when possible!

1 c Frank’s French Fried Onions
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 egg, or egg substitute

Crush onions in a plastic bag. Dip chicken into egg, then cook in onion crumbs. Bank 20 minutes at 350 degrees until cooked through.

*Note: Cover baking sheet with foil, spray foil with Pam, then place chicken on to bake.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds yummy!

Hopefully it’s not too “in your face food.” Matt laughed at me for taking pictures of food again and again refused to be pictured eating it. Party pooper!

Thanks to Matt’s cousin Alisha for the recipe, and to my aunt Claire for helping me start a recipe collection at my bridal shower! Bit by bit this life as a wife stuff is becoming more normal.

(As always, click on the photos to view a larger version.)

We decided my picture of the final product in the pan was too “in your face food.”  I’m still perfecting both my cooking and food picture skills. Thanks for your patience.

Along with homemade bread — my second and moderately successful attempt — it was an awesome way to greet the morning.

And if that weren’t enough, I had a hankering for chocolate chip banana bread. Problem was, I didn’t have two of the ingredients. Thank goodness for Google, as I was able to find substitutes. While I would like to say it was easy, the final product was my second attempt. (Sensing a trend here with my baking projects?) You see, our pantry is right next to our laundry in our kitchen, so it becomes a catch-all. While trying to make the scramble without overcooking the eggs, I wasn’t entirely focused on the banana bread. I went to get the white Costco-sized cooking oil bottle, measured it and poured it on in the mix. Thinking it was thicker than I expected, I double checked the package. Good thing, because I had put laundry detergent in the mix. D’oh! Upon telling Matt this, he asked me what would happened if he died from me poisoning him. Such love. Maybe we should build some bigger shelves above our laundry space. It reminds me of the time my mom accidentally sprayed Scrubbing Bubbles in her hair, thinking it was hairspray. Us Atwoods must be bad at mornings or multi-tasking. Or both.

So, the next batch turned out much better, although the edges got a bit more crispy than I would like. Since every appliance in our kitchen has the same beep, I have apparently tuned them out and my bread was neglected.

If our house wasn’t filled with enough delectable smells already, I decided to celebrate autumn by lighting a candle. My mom always has these great smelling candles that makes the drastic change in weather somewhat enjoyable. I finally went down to Michael’s and picked up a couple — gingerbread and pumpkin scents — as well as a couple candle holders like so:

We’re still working on home improvements, bit by bit. Matt installed a new front door lock today and yesterday I researched window coverings at a local store. Little by little, we’re getting settled into our new home and life together.