BAKE 22 – JUNE 13, 2020

Yeast Utilized: 1 1/2 Tablespoons

Another bake born of necessity. I had some milk approaching its expiry date, so Amish Milk Bread we go. Though I did the calculations for one loaf, I chose to make two this time around. The better to use up my milk.

Ingredients gathered. Yeast and water yeasting. Look how pretty.

First minor error was I didn’t sufficiently warm the butter before I used it, so I ended up with a rather chunky start to things.

But look at all the milk I’ve used! Two whole cups.

That high ratio of liquid to dry ingredients meant it took a lot of flour before this started to look and feel like a dough. Three cups of flour added, it still looked more like a batter.

A thick batter with chunks of butter. …yum?

With four cups of flour integrated, I could start kneading it properly. I hoped that kneading would also provide the proper warmth to soften the butter and make sure it was spread throughout the dough. Took a while, but I did finally stop feeling the butter balls in the dough.

Such a fantastic dough to knead, too.

And it rose so well!

The recipe specified that the dough should be “punch[ed] down.” So.

Punch.

Knead again and separate into loaves. And it was about this time that I heard a loud crack and a pop and my electricity went out. I felt very Amish indeed, kneading bread only by the sunlight coming in my window.

I do not have two loaf pans, so into what I have the two loaves go for their last proof.

Guess that other one could be called a casserole dish?

They were to rise for another 45 minutes, and 45 minutes later, they looked lovely.

We’re lovely.

But guess what? I still had no electricity. A tree branch had taken down the line, and it wasn’t estimated to be fixed for a minimum of four hours… Times like this, you need an Amish outdoor wood-fire oven, but I do not have that. I put these loaves in the fridge with the hopes of retarding the yeast just a bit.

Six hours later, when the power came back on…

Remember us when we were lovely!

I put them into the oven as soon as possible. I baked the flatter fellow for a bit less.

But for the tree and half a day without power, these would have been very pretty bakes. As they are, they’re not much to look at, but they still taste pretty good. Good enough for me, at any rate.

To the next bake—–>