Saturday, April 12, 2008

Evening Blogging

Slogger is already in bed -- he fades fast, as soon as afternoon wears into evening -- and I'm all up by my lonesome, so I thought I'd blog a bit. I spent today cooking and working on my summer online course. The last couple of times I've made bread in my bread machine it fell flat, so I did some reading on the subject and decided to start a little bread-making experiment. Basically, because I am at high altitude, the idea is that the yeast will rise faster and higher than the gluten can stretch, which will cause the whole structure to collapse. Recommendations include reducing the amount of yeast by 1/4 of a teaspoon, and reducing the amount of water by 1-2 teaspoons. I did both today (and kept a record) and found that the bread ended up a bit higher than last time, but still fell a bit. I know, I should have only changed one thing at a time. I did notice, as the dough was rising for the first time, that it was a bit stickier than I would have liked if I were making it by hand. Soooo...... I think the next time I make bread with the machine, I'll reduce the water a bit more, keep the yeast at the same amount, and/or perhaps increase the flour just a bit. I'm pretty sure I'll get it eventually.

The word "recommendation" there reminds me of the email I just got from a student who is student teaching currently. He had asked me to write a letter of recommendation for him, which I did and mailed to him. Apparently, though, I left in a "she" instead of a "he" in the last paragraph of the letter, which led him to ask this, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way:

"Does my long hair make me seem more feminine to you?"

So, I'll be rewriting and remailing that one!

The registration for my summer online class is getting crazy -- that class is almost full, and I know there are still students out there who are just able to register on Monday. I hope I don't end up with a waiting list, as I'm not keen on having to grade jillions of papers all summer!

I can't think of anything else, really, so I'll close and head for bed with a glass of water and Harry Potter.

2 comments:

Belle said...

My ciabatta didn't turn out as hoped. It's good, but lacks the texture I was going for. I like the stuff with lots of holes/crevices, and this is pretty much loaf sans holes/crevices. You might check foodtv.com for altitude adjustments. I'm always amazed what I find on there.

Belle said...

Your yahoo doesn't work; if you'll send me a link, I'll send you the recipe for the ciabatta bread. Maybe you can make it work. If so, tell me how!!!