Wednesday, July 8, 2009

My dough, my dough, it's off to church I go...

Last week I opened an e-mail from a church friend. She usually brings a light breakfast for our congregation each Sunday, but she knew she wouldn't be there on July 5, and needed a couple of people to do the food shopping for her. On a whim, I hit "Respond."

And offered to make enough baked goods for our entire (small) church. Temporary insanity, I guess. (Spare the "Temporary? Chuckle, chuckle" comments.)

Now, I've blogged about the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I got as a Christmas present. Sure enough, bread baking has become a wee bit of an obsession (a very yummy obsession) for me this year. I figured I could find a few recipes to make for Sunday's service. It would be fun.

Well, it was fun. It was also a lot of work. It's kind of like childbirth. Right afterward I said, "I don't think I'd ever do that again!" But now, a few days later, I'm thinking it wasn't so bad. Which means in another few months I'll find myself repeating this whole process. (The baking. Not the childbirth.)

Friday I made three types of dough from the book...

...bagel dough,...

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...brioche dough,...

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...and my own version of oatmeal bread dough. (It was "my own version" since I ran out of white flour and had to replace most of it with whole wheat and rye flours. It didn't initially rise well, but I gave the loaves plenty of rising time in the pans, and they did well.)

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I rearranged my fridge, stacking things precariously, so that all the dough would fit overnight. (See that little bottle next to the brioche? That's Prince Zoodle's Augmentin, the evil antibiotic that my pediatrician's office assured me yesterday he still needs to take.)

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Saturday afternoon I got to work making a mess. Let me tell you, I am not a neat baker. I get flour and sugar and oatmeal all over the place. I was working barefoot, and with all the ingredients my feet picked up, I probably could have scraped my soles afterward and made a streusel topping. (Don't worry, I didn't.)

By the evening, though, the kitchen was (fairly) clean, and my countertops were filled with baked goods.

There were sesame seed bagels, chewy and moist.

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For sweets-lovers, I had cinnamon rolls. (For the filling and topping I used this recipe for rolls that are supposed to taste like Cinnabons. I actually used the Artisan Bread in Five brioche dough because I know I can make it correctly and I haven't had the best luck with cinnamon rolls in the past...but the dough in the original recipe sounds delicious.)

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And for those who wanted a healthy, whole-grain option without any refined sugar, I made two loaves of oatmeal bread swirled with raisins and walnuts.

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So, for those of you who asked in Saturday's comments whether we stayed home or braved the sweltering park for Independence Day...well, after being in a hot kitchen so much of the day, I really didn't have any desire to spend the evening outside. It was still 100 degrees at 6 p.m. Next year, I won't bake all day on July 4th, and maybe our kids will get to see some fireworks. As for this year...well, they enjoyed the bagels and cinnamon rolls. That's almost as exciting as fireworks, right?

17 comments:

Anna said...

your post just made me hungry>.....YUM!

Call Me Cate said...

One of each, please! They look delicious. Though... what happened to the "5 minutes" part?

Guttermouth said...

I'll take one of those delicious looking cinnamon rolls over some fireworks any 4th of July!

forever folding laundry said...

Wow, you are good! I've never attempted anything close to bagels. They look delicious. And with some non non-fat cream cheese? Yum. Way better than fireworks. :)

~Keri

Rachel Cotterill said...

Those all look so great. Did all the recipes come from that same book? I've never tried making bagels but it looks fun :)

Sazz said...

I love bagels and those look yummy!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and they good wishes. Like you said charting is the best thing ever and the book that you mention I read it and it was great. I have learned so much about my body since this process started than I had for 28 years.

BTW you have beautiful kids!

C. Beth said...

Anna--Mmm, I wish I'd saved a little more for me to eat!

Call Me Cate--Well, the "5 minutes" part only applies to simple loaves. Sigh. I kept waiting for the cinnamon rolls to roll themselves, and it didn't happen.

Guttermouth--Amen! I like fireworks...but I LOVE cinnamon rolls!

Keri--Oh, now I can't do nonfat cream cheese. Reduced fat (neufatchel or however it's spelled)--now that is what I like.

Rachel--The filling & topping of the cinnamon rolls is another recipe (linked above.) All the rest was from that book! Bagels are yummy but they do take awhile since you have to form, then boil, then bake them.

Sazz--Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comment about my kiddos! Best of luck in your TTC journey!

2cats said...

I guess maybe I need to rethink a bread machine and buy a book instead. They all looked so tasty that I salivated on my keyboard.

Crazy Mo said...

Wow! You're my hero C.Beth!! First of all, I'm impressed with the orderliness (is that a word?) of your fridge. Then you make all these different food stuffs AND they look absolutely awesome. Way to go!

(I'm not letting The Husband read your blog ... he'll get crazy ideas about cooking skills being electronically transferred, or some such thing)

LEstes65 said...

Wow! Talk about above and beyond! Thank you so much for doing this. I sure did miss church that day. I'm glad you kept them well fed!

Oh - and augmentin is the absolutely WORST tasting antibiotic. So much so that, if they prescribe it for either of my children, I make them switch it to something else. Pokemon Boy had to take it back in his kidney issue days. He fought HORRIBLY. Once I tasted it, I agreed and made them switch him. So if Zoodle acts like you're sawing off his leg? It tastes THAT BAD. Just so you know he's not overreacting.

caryn said...

They all look so good!! I still haven't picked up the book yet and I kick myself everytime you mention it!

Charliespearls said...

Great job! It looks delicious. Thanks

Janna said...

Bravo! I loved seeing the little hand in the oatmeal batter picture.

I just posted about homemade pizza crust. I used to be so scared of yeast. I thought is was only for the Amish and Pilgrims:)

Anyway, this make me want to try my hand at more bread making.

janice said...

Beth- Those bagels look AMAZING!!! I tried to make them once, back in high school. Burned out the motor on the mixer I was using...they were worth it though- so delicious!

Eternal Lizdom said...

heavens to beth-y... those all look fabulous!!!

Our Scoop said...

SUPER SUPER Impressive!! Wow! I wish I could have been in your house - a few hours after the oven turned off. Wow. How long did all that take? Do you have to make it all at once?? I would weigh a whole lot more than I do (scary thought) if I had that book!! Yikes! I love breads!! :)

Anonymous said...

What beautiful baked goods! I think I just gained two lbs. just looking at the pictures. :(