attack of the yeastie beastie.

As some of you may know, the Husband is doing his own bloggy thing over at The Kitchen Noob.   I gave him a book about making bread for Christmas and that's what he's been doing ever since. Our house smells like a bakery and every day there is something delicious coming out of that godforsaken rickety old oven.

Today he decided to switch recipes.  This involved adding ingredients that he has not used before (like powdered milk) and butter.  Yes, he's used butter before, just not in the bread.  This was all mixed up with a dough hook, some vigorous kneading and a couple of slaps from me.  Into a greased bowl atop the oven it went and he promptly left the house to run an errand.

All was well. The point here being I was getting some quality Jen quiet time!

Very soon after he left I heard a crinkling noise. I attributed this to Chigger, our cat, who has a penchant for sticking his neck through Wal-mart bags. I usually let him have at it for a while and then take the bag away before any brain damage can occur.  I'm good like that.

This noise went on for nearly 30 minutes, but very sporadically. I'd be typing away and hear "crinkle crinkle". And then nothing for another 4 or 5 minutes.  Finally I noticed Chigger asleep in the cat tree about 3 feet away from me. Yea.. I'm real observant.

Crinkle crinkle.....

 I look behind me. It's kind of loud now.

Crinkle crinkle...

I look under my desk.  I'm starting to think maybe there's a lil mouse or some freak wintery big-ass bug crawling around.. making it's way towards me. (this is why I should not be left alone)

Crinkle crinkle...

      
Alright. I'm gettin' up now!   I look over at the stove and what the!?  The dough is now about 3 times the size it was when we started and all the saran wrap is coming up off the bowl. As I stare it..

...crinkle...crinkle...

up comes more of the saran as the dough puffs up higher.

I was pretty sure we were going to be in for an I ♥ Lucy episode.  By the time the Husband got home, the bread had risen to about 5 times the size and looked like a giant mushroom.

You might be wondering why this is even remotely worth blogging about.  Well, I'll tell ya.  Up  until this point he has been making the same bread recipe over and over again in an attempt to perfect it. I'm here to tell ya, it wasn't worth perfecting.  It tasted especially nice toasted with a bit of jam. It smelled heavenly whilst cooking.  But it could have shielded me in a nuclear blast.  I prefer a bit less density to my food.    Why the density? Probably due to the fact that rapid-rise yeast and a good four hour window only ever got it to rise about an inch.



I'm sure the husband will post about it over at TKN so be sure to check out the photos.


ps: this new bread, which I am calling the I ♥ Lucy loaf, was AMAZING.  



pps: two loaves of this bread cost roughly $1.40 to make. Can you even buy 1 loaf for that? I dun think so!