other people's kitchens

well, i'm giving artisan bread in five minutes a day another shot. the first thing i attempted out of this book failed miserably. i'm no novice bread maker either, but i was pretty disappointed in my rock hard unrisen results. i'm not sure as to reasoning behind the failure. hence why i'm trying again.

this time, i made sure that the dough rose and fell, instead of just giving it the two hour rising time recommended. i think the first attempt had two factors destining it to fail. 1: freezing cold house. seriously, this place is chillay. and2:, i'm not sure as to the quality of the yeast. i'm using a different type of yeast this time, nothing fancy, just not store brand. so now, we'll see what happened.

i'm attempting the butter rich brioche, instead of the peasant style boule. which hopefully will turn out better, merely because of the higher sugar content for the yeast to feed off of. i also let it rise inside the oven, instead of the countertop. we had a fire tonight, and the relative room temperature was pretty cool. so i turned the oven on to 350, let it warm for about 15 seconds, and stuck the dough in, after turning the oven off. and voila! it worked!

looks good... filled up a 5 quart container

look ma, big holes!
notice the bit where the skin broke after sticking to the lid.

so, tomorrow is my day of reckoning. i'm really really hoping and praying to make a nice artisanal loaf. although with brioche, i don't know what to expect. i've never made it before, but i guess if this book is as good as everyone says, i'll be back to rave about it.

also, check out the authors website here, for more recipes, tips, tricks and prettier pics than i have.