Sigh...the weekend's almost over...
Last friday, i was silently exclaiming "TGIF" to myself every now and then, and at the moment i'm bemoaning the end of sunday with a large dose of sian-ness...it's been a long time since i loved weekends THAT much. Oh shitshitshitshitshit i gotta keep my levels of enthusiasm and energy up! Argh!
And i've got a slightly pounding headache right now, for some reason...dunno why but when i clench my fists lightly i can also feel my pulse coming from my THUMBS like what the hell.
Anyway yesterday i drove to Parkway without any of my parents sitting in the car! Lol ok like
big deal yeah but that's certainly a start. I'm now certified to "drive on my own around the neighbourhood"...Man, how cool is that!!! :D
...:|
Okay moving on...on sunday (meaning today), early afternoon, i was alone at home and feeling rather bored so i went ahead and baked another loaf of bread! Whahaha but i'm not going to bring it to work Angel so you don't have to bother asking me! In any case it was another good learning experience, although this time it felt MUCH better because i wasn't under any pressure for time and the house was all quiet and peaceful.
It was much less messy this time and i didn't get as much dough sticking onto my hands like last week. My clothes were also mostly untouched and the clean-up was fast and efficient (even on my own). Also, my measurement of ingredients went really smoothly, unlike last week, and my shaping and smoothening of the bread dough was, if i may say so myself, EXCELLENT! MAGNIFIQUE! >:D
But then later when i was about to start my fermentation i realised that i'd forgotten to put in the butter. 0_o
So not so
magnifique after all.
And adding the butter late on makes it rather difficult 'cos you end up getting "oiled dough" that's very hard to reshape smoothly without adding a bit more flour or perhaps using a rolling pin (which i didn't have). The gluten chains have all formed up so it's pretty difficult to get those layers of dough to stick together smoothly even without the butter standing in the way.
I still managed to get it back to a decent level, but then here's where i learnt something else: I REALLY NEED TO GET A PROPER CONTAINER FOR FERMENTATION!!!
I was trying to make a long, french-loaf-shaped bread today, but i somehow figured that molding it into shape and leaving it on a tray in an enclosed area would be sufficient for fermentation. AND THAT'S COMPLETELY WRONG! How stupid and naive of me. In the end, the bread expanded...and became all nice and FLAT!!!
So in the end i think my bread tastes GREAT...but it's also a little too sticky and the insides are not fluffy enough. Granted, i steamed the bread for the first half of the baking process (because of some random idea i had lol), but i think it's mostly because the dough didn't rise well due to a lack of a proper container.
Well like i said, a good learning experience, and if the bread didn't turn out as expected, i guess i'll just have to try again...next week! :)
My goodness...but when's the next weekend going to come around? Gosh i'm like waiting for it already...:(
