bread after long hiatus

I made yeast bread for the first time in ages today. Back in college I used to make 4 loaves at a time using the recipe from The Tasajara Bread Book. It was a big production, took the whole day, messed up the whole kitchen. I remember discovering that if you follow the directions, it really isn't that hard. Today I made 2 loaves of the sour cream bread from Beard on Bread:

1 package active dry yeast 3 Tablespoons white sugar 1/4 cup warm water 2 cups sour cream 1 Tablespoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 4 1/2 - 5 cups white flour.

It turned out that I had only 1 cup sour cream so I used sweet cream for the other cup. I used mostly unbleached all-purpose white flour but substituted one cup of mixed oat flour and whole wheat. It must be a holdover from my health food days. Plain white flour seems so evil to me. As I was making the bread, the amount of salt seemed high to me, but I really was trying to stick to the recipe despite the substitutions so I used the full amount. A minute later, I turned back to the instructions to check on something and saw where Beard says that he likes that much salt but that you can cut back the amount to taste. I did find the end result to be overly salty.

My first problem was in proofing the yeast. It wouldn't bubble and foam. I thought maybe the water was too cold, didn't want to microwave it for fear of getting it too hot, ended up putting it in a small toaster oven that had been pre-heated, then turned off. It took 15 minutes, but when I was satisfied that the yeast was good (and there was no reason to think it wouldn't be as the expiration date was in the far future and I'd gotten it at the supermarket), I proceeded.

Kneading turns out to be one of those things that you never forget how to do. It's fun and satisfying to feel the dough change under your hands until it gets that wonderful springy elastic feel. I was sure I'd never figure out what "double in bulk" looks like, but it wasn't that hard. My college apartments all had gas pilots which made the oven the perfect place for letting the bread rise, but now we have electric. I pre-heated the oven to 200 degrees, turned it off and used the oven for rising again. It worked.

At the last minute, I decided to make one regular loaf in the loaf pan and make the other loaf into "snails." That's where you roll out the dough, brush on butter, honey, jam, sprinkle raisins, nuts, cinnamon, whatever, roll it up, then slice and lay them flat on a cookie sheet. I used butter, blueberry jam, raisins, the slightest amount of cinnamon (Jim doesn't like too much) and nutmeg.

I got the snails out when they were perfectly lightly browned. I forgot the loaf and left it in the oven too long so it is overly brown.

Results: The bread is too salty. I know how to fix that for next time. For the sweet snails, I should use a sweeter dough, but this one wasn't bad. The "slight tang" that Beard mentioned turns out to be too tangy for me. I'm glad I didn't use the full amount of sour cream. I should use apricot or raspberry jam next time. I forgot why I bought the blueberry. Did I think I was in a rut? I really don't like blueberry that much. The texture and crumb are perfect. Really, I'm very impressed with myself. I'd forgotten that bread is hard to mess up. People think it is tricky because you have to wait for it to rise and know how to judge elasticity of texture, but it is really easier than cakes and cookies. Using a little oat and whole wheat flour was fine.

Next time I think I'll try saffron bread with currants or maybe a yeasted coffee cake.

--Lia