I decided to practice dough shaping. I made a batch of dough from The Bread Bible. Once the bread machine was through with the dough, I picked up the dough and tucked the edges underneath and toward the center; this is easier to do when you aren't holding a camera in one hand. I tucked to give the dough a domed shape.
The result was just what I wanted. The dough held its shape as I baked. The tucks give some slight seams in the finished bread but everything integrates pretty well.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...



Comments
Post a Comment