Sunday, December 24, 2006

The Rules of the Game

When you're faced with a recipe that has an unknown quantity of various spices, here's the CC's meta-interpretation of the recipe:

Add a lot of the spices you like; a "reasonable" amount of what you're neutral to; and very little of what you don't.

Not exactly Julia Child but the CC has never gone wrong with it.

Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 3, 2006

The "No-Knead" Bread : An Update

So the CC has been making this bread on a fairly regular basis, and has a few comments to share.

Firstly, this bread is very forgiving in terms of quantities, timings, etc. Traditionally, baking is not known for being forgiving. It's the perfect sport for the "anal-retentive control-freak" types (except that "rises" are outside their control so they make up for it by trying to control everything else.)

If you've never handled truly slack dough before, I still urge you to try this one out. The results are so consistently spectacular that it's hard to believe. Even my failures are really good, and the CC is getting very used to even slacker dough than this recipe. (Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the CC is still learning on the job.)

If you've never made bread before, please realize that the "cooling down" is part of the process, and it may not be hurried. The bread is still "baking" on the rack as it cools down. In fact, if you've made the bread well, you should hear wonderful crackling sounds (that can be quite loud) while the bread cools down.

The CC is aware that the temptation of cutting it too soon is always going to be with us, but patience pays off.

Happy baking!