Bread Makes The Meal

This morning I finally got to make the buttermilk biscuits I've been hoping for the last two days. As I guessed, they took only a while to make (the recipe was ready by the time the oven was done preheating) and they were done in 17 minutes (the recipe said 15 - 20, I split the difference). I think I must have done something weird with it though, maybe with the butter; the biscuits looked and tasted good, but I thought maybe they were a little chewy. Herself agreed with me, too. She had them with butter; I had them plain. Biscuits aren't supposed to be chewy, are they? Maybe a problem with cutting in the butter. You could tell I haven't made biscuits for quite a while. So there it is, I've now made the Buttermilk Loaf and the Buttermilk Biscuits - both good but with each their own problems. I'll try them again, later. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread . Edit: Added a picture.

By the way, I got an answer from The Source (of the Buttermilk Bread recipe, that is) about why I got the clumpy spots in my buttermilk bread. Leslie says, "There should be no mixing issues if you kneaded vigourously for 8-10 minutes...by hand or machine. There is no way something will not get mixed in at that rate. It looked more like uneven baking, and/or undercooked dough, at least from the picture. You can take its temp if you're not sure about doneness." So maybe a thermometer is called for? I've never stuck a thermometer in bread before, only meats. I'm not even sure what temperature I should be looking for. I also had the thought that there was quite a bit of dough there (the recipe called for 4 - 6 cups of flour and 2 of buttermilk for one loaf). Maybe next time I'll try splitting it into 2 smaller loaves?

So I started using Sunday's buttermilk bread this morning making PBJ for my wife - only to discover it's got clumpy spots (see one up toward the top left?). I must say, this is the first time this has ever happened to me - though I know exactly what's going on. It seems the dough didn't get mixed well enough and the yeast didn't distribute evenly. So now I have to think what I could have done. Maybe pour in the buttermilk more slowly? There was a lot of it, after all. On another note, I got a hankering for scones yesterday and put out a call for a quick recipe - and got one from my youngest sister this morning! So now I might be making some after I get home tonight. Yum! My sister says the trick is to cut in the butter with a stand mixer. The problem is, we don't have a stand mixer at home. Will a regular beater work as well? What do you think? And do you have a recipe for scones, or biscuits, to share? I found another great bread quote from Miguel Ce...

So, I've liked baking bread for ages. I think I got it from my mom. Certainly I have great memories of watching her bake bread when I was a child. And I've always got so much satisfaction out of watching (and smelling!) the yeast come alive, and feeling the dough give under my hands - not to mention the taste and smell of it warm out of the oven. Could there be anything more satisfying? I think not. But I hadn't really done any baking since getting married five years ago—so I was really happy last Christmas when my wife gave me The Everything Bread Cookbook , by Leslie Bilderback (whose website, having discovered it, I now intend to fully explore). It took a couple of months, but I started in on it, learned a few interesting things—and then, today, got a new idea. I've thought about blogging before, but I always thought, "What do I like enough, do well enough, think about enough that I could write about it once or twice a week? And today it came to me. I m...