a baking fool

That's what I am, this weekend.

Friday night, in the midst of grading, I decided I was hungry for breadsticks and marinara sauce (a cheaper, and lower-fat - because of no cheese or meats - version of pizza). But I knew I didn't want to drive out to the Little Caesar's, because (a) their breadsticks are salty and fatty, and not that great for you and (b) they're across town and I just didn't want to saddle up again and go back out.

So I used a pizza crust recipe from one of my cooking-for-one cookbooks. It's small, takes like a cup of flour (and a little cornmeal for texture). It doesn't have to rise very long (1/2 hour for first rising was plenty, and after shaping, 15 minutes was enough).

So I made the breadsticks, and wondered why I didn't bother to make small quantities of "real" bread more often. The time factor is part of it. (Especially if you want wholemeal bread - whole-grain flours take longer to rise because they are heavier and typically develop less gluten). But there is something very satisfying on a deep level about being able to make bread.

One of my "historical" cookbooks (that is, it's a newer cookbook but with older recipes - it's one that Arizona Highways put out a few years back; I got a copy for Christmas a few years ago) has a little rhyme in it that they said was from an old, old cookbook. I think I've seen it elsewhere:

"Breathes there a wife with a soul so dead
That she has never to her husband said,
'This is my own, real, homemade bread'?"

Now, I'm not anyone's wife, but I can relate to that. There is a certain satisfaction - maybe even smugness - in being able to make your own "real" bread, taking flour and yeast and water and combining them (and, if you're an American, likely also fat and sugar...the American "keeping loaf" with butter or oil and sugar in it was a product of the pioneers, when women baked once a week and had to make a "keeping loaf." The flour-yeast-water breads are more typical of old Europe, where people living in towns - or at least, near a baker - would buy their bread very nearly daily)

I grew up eating homemade bread. My mom always baked bread; I think now it was (like her extensive gardening) partly the effect of being an intelligent, educated, active woman who had chosen to stay home to raise her children - and so she needed stuff to do. (I am, perhaps, not as unlike my mother in personality as I might think). Also, she grew up eating homemade bread (her mother was an excellent bread-maker, and also, baking bread at home was a really good way to save money in a family that didn't have a lot to spare).

So I got kind of spoiled. To this day I disdain most grocery store bread (I make an exception for Orowheat's "Health Nut" loaf, which is actually pretty good). I don't eat a whole lot of bread, actually: I am not a big sandwich-eater and I generally don't think of starches as a "fill in" at a meal...I'll eat a bigger salad or another piece of fruit or do something like boil up an egg if I feel like I need more. But it is nice, once in a while, to have homemade bread.

I don't generally bake partly because of the time factor, but also because a lot of the good bread recipes I have make multiple loaves. (Again: the farm influence, the baking-once-a-week for a big family). I know, you can freeze bread - but it's a rare day I REMEMBER to take something that's in the freezer out, so that's not the best option. Perhaps what I should do is seek out smaller recipes, or see if the large ones can be cut down. Because it is a pleasure to have "real" bread, and, in particular, toast is a very nice thing to have instead of the same-old cereal every morning. (I found fig jam at the store the other day. It's surprisingly good.)

Also, today I made tortillas as part of my lunch. I had cooked up a big pot of Anasazi beans on Thursday when I was stuck at home (because of the ice). I tend to think beans are best with something like cornbread or tortillas, and I needed my 8 x 8 pan for something else later today....so tortillas it was. I've shared the tortilla recipe before; it's so simple to do that I don't even bother to buy flour tortillas now, because I can have fresh homemade ones in about 40 minutes. (And what's more: the recipe I have makes enough for two servings, so I can eat them up over the course of two days. Back when I bought the packs of flour tortillas, they'd often go bad in the fridge. Also, they were not nearly as good as my homemade ones, which meant I was less prone to eat them up).

(Anasazi beans are an old, old Southwestern bean variety - supposedly the people in the Southwest before the Navajo (they are known to the Navajo as the Anasazi, which I've been told means either "ancient ones" or "ancient enemies"). The beans themselves are a bit like pintos, only the speckling is red and white rather than brown. They're a lot like a New England variety called Jacob's Cattle, and may, in fact, be the same variety. They're a little hard to find but the natural-foods store in Sherman carries them, and to my great joy, I found that the Green Spray has them. I think the Green Spray shows some of the influence of being run by a family group rather than a corporation - they have a lot of neat odd items that some larger stores don't carry. I think they must carry the Anasazi beans because one of the owners likes them).

And now, as soon as the eggs have come up to room temperature, I need to make a cake and a half for tomorrow night. (It's CWF.) I was going to make one 9 by 13 cake, but then the president started worrying about "what if more people show up" (I will be surprised if they do. I am sure many of the young-marrieds will be doing Valentine's Day at home). So, I'm making a cake and a half, and figuring if we don't need to cut into the "half," I'll figure out some use for it - it would be a bit small to frost and bring into my department, which would be the logical thing.

So: one (doubled) recipe of hot-milk sponge in a 9x13 pan, one regular recipe in an 8 x 8 pan. And tomorrow I'm going to make a raspberry sauce because (as I've said before) I'm not mad about frosting cakes, nor am I a particularly great fan of frosting. And I'm going to bring whipped cream, so they can have cake with sauce and/or whipped cream.

I just hope my co-hostess remembers to show up; fixing the coffee will be on her. (I can't make good coffee as I don't drink it myself.)