Further to previous

If you’re paying attention, you’ll know there are a couple of unanswered questions from my last post.

For example, what exactly did I grab from Dave and Jan’s deck the other day?

A couple of years ago, in order to provide myself with a bit more counter space in the kitchen, I hauled a small table out of the shed and moved it into the house.

It ain’t pretty, but it did the job, giving me somewhere that isn’t actually on the counter to put stuff. One of the jobs I’d hoped Mr Fixit might tackle before he starts building his new house was to make some shelves to replace this stopgap measure. He’s off the hook now, because the other day Dave and Jan were preparing to take exactly what I wanted to the local recycling centre.

How perfect is that? So much better.

Now, question two: What about this new multigrain flour?

Before going to bed I mixed up a batch of dough and threw a tea towel over it. After eight hours the dough should have risen to fill up the entire bowl. When I took the tea towel off the next morning this is what I saw.

Hmm. Not what I was supposed to see. Oh, well, the oven was heated, the bread pan greased, might as well throw it in and see what happens.

Difficult to tell from the photo how much smaller this is than a normal loaf. It’s not a brick exactly, but not far off.

The bread is dense and moist (dare I suggest not completely cooked?). It tastes okay, but clearly something is not right. When Jane suggested the Bulk Barn twelve-grain flour, I did ask if she thought it would work with her basic recipe. She assured me that any flour should work, although I might need to make some adjustments. Easy for her (a dedicated baker) to say. Obviously some adjustment is required, but bugger me if I know what. I love this recipe because I thought it was completely fool proof. As I freely admit, I am a complete fool when it comes to baking, I have no idea what adjustment I’m supposed to make. I used, as instructed, half a teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of yeast. More yeast? Less yeast? More sugar? Less sugar? I have no fucking idea.

Guess I need to send Jane an email. Meanwhile, in case it isn’t actually cooked properly, I think I’ll stick with toast for the remainder of this particular loaf.

Disappointing, but the new kitchen shelves look great, don’t they?