determined optimism

[celticdragonfly]

After a 2nd kneading and shaping the loaves to go into the breadpans, I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. After all, as I remind myself, I don't ever exactly follow flour measurements on bread - you just put in enough to get the dough workable, and then work in as much flour as it takes to get to the right feeling. So if my water, oil, and salt amounts were a bit low, probably I kneaded in less flour.

The texture of the dough I just worked with felt right, anyway.

I'm still trying to figure out what to glaze the crust with - egg white or yolk is traditional - and out. Milk is supposed to produce a nice soft crust - and is out. Butter too. Water gets a crisp crust - I really didn't want that effect. I wonder what I'd get just from oil.

Comments

[marymont.livejournal.com]

Oiled crusts are like butter crusts, they just don't taste as good. Maybe margarine?

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I don't have much margarine here, and no dairy-free margarine. Oil it is.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Oil give a good browning to the top, most oils don't bring a lot of flavor to the party but that might be what you want. If you want to sprinkle salt or seeds on top, the oil will help keep them in position.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Browning would do. I would have liked the soft crust effect I'd read that milk does. No seeds, I'm going for a very basic sandwich bread that the kids will eat.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

In which case you probably DON"T want to use olive oil.

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

One thing I just thought of...queengirl on my friendslist is raising her kids dairy free. She also homeschools and deals with a lot of the adventures you do. You might want to ask her about for ideas about recipes and substitutes. She's another "bake your own bread/knit your own socks" kind of person.