This is a story that has a happy ending.
(See above.)
What happened before that ending, however, was not quite so happy.
There was the steady stream of smoke spewing from the oven; there was the coughing. And then there was the glowering from Mike (who was doing the coughing).
But there was a lesson learned while making focaccia for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge this week:
Don’t be so greedy — use less olive oil.
Like bagels, English muffins had always been in the category I call “So easy to buy — why bother making them?”
But for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge, I’d already tackled some key standards — challah, cinnamon buns, brioche. So I figured, what’s one more?
And besides, it turned out, making English muffins is easy — so incredibly easy, in fact, that nothing eventful happened.
As I whizzed through the steps, I began to wonder if I should have blindfolded myself or tied one hand behind my back while making them, just to have something fascinating to say about baking English muffins. Oh, the trials that could have happened! The tribulations! The smell of burnt cornmeal filling my apartment again!
Alas, none of that occurred.
Earlier this week, I found myself obsessing over balance.
Specifically, how on earth was I supposed to piggyback one braid of cranberry-walnut dough atop another and expect it to be balanced enough to stay on?
I’d heard of difficulties in this area; I’d even seen one picture of a mutant cranberry-walnut celebration bread in which the top layer of this double-decker braided bread had slipped off, forming an “Alien”-like doughy growth.
Given my recent mishaps while baking my way through Peter Reinhart’s bread bible, the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I was certain that Alien bread was in my very near future.
But if this weekly baking challenge has taught me anything, it’s that the trying is what’s important.
So I pulled out the bread flour and let the baking begin …
Baking a bread every week can teach you many things.
Don’t overbook yourself. Take things slow.
This week, making cornbread for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge reminded me of yet another thing that’s applicable to life in general: Get enough sleep.
It was only as I was licking cinnamon sugar off a plate after rapidly devouring three slices of bread that I managed to put a finger on the word I was looking for to describe the cinnamon raisin walnut loaf I had just made.
Trouble.
And this is coming from someone who has generally preferred savory or plain loaves to sweet cinnamon-raisin breads.
Peter Reinhart’s recipe for cinnamon-raisin bread? It’s trouble.