{"id":3664,"date":"2014-09-20T22:13:40","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T05:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2016-05-06T12:32:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T19:32:46","slug":"further-adventures-in-breadmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=3664","title":{"rendered":"Further adventures in breadmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, I baked my first loaf of bread<\/a>. Two weeks ago, I decided to try it again. And it failed, and here’s what I learned.<\/p>\n

The original recipe said to use “something along the lines of 1 cup” of water to mix in with the yeast. So I used 1 cup. In later discussion on the blog post above, it sounded like people thought 1\/4 cup should be sufficient. So when I recorded the recipe, that’s what I used, and when I pulled it out to start baking, I’d forgotten all about this exchange.<\/p>\n

With only 1\/4 cup of water, I got a very dry dough that wouldn’t let me add more flour in the “add more flour” step. It was also very difficult to knead. But I kept at it. In the end, it barely rose, and I got a very small, dense loaf. Actually, it was still tasty, just thicker than you’d expect from a standard bread.<\/p>\n

Lesson<\/u>: the water does matter! And for this recipe, use 1 cup. <\/p>\n

One week ago, I tried again, with 1 cup of water, and the bread came out fantastic again. I also incorporated some suggestions from “The New Best Recipe”<\/a>, the encyclopedic cookbook\/instruction manual I’ve raved about in the past<\/a>:<\/p>\n