We didn’t run much when the trails were all icy, but as things thaw out, we’re back to it. Our first run will be Sunday, March 10. We’ll meet at Camel’s Back at 8:30. See you there.
Recently I got a new refrigerator to use as a kegerator. Once the kegs of homebrew were in the house, we started to think about what else could be dispensed and decided to make root beer. I had some Bucksnort root beer and thought it would be good to imitate that if I could. So here is attempt 1:
Put the sugar, sassafras and licorice into the brew kettle with 3 gallons water and boiled for 25 minutes. Drained into sterilized keg and top off with cold tap water. Then added wintergreen extract, cooled keg and force carbonated.
Impressions: Tasted the next day and it was ok. Definitely not Bucksnort, but drinkable. A little on the light side, it was more red than dark brown I would expect for root beer. Also, a little heavy on the wintergreen. A good first batch with room for improvement.
I’ve been brewing beer for a few years now. I’m usually looking for new twists to try brewing. The last beer I brewed was my first lager. It came out ok, but had a few slight off flavors. This weekend, I started my first gluten-free beer. The fermentables were:
I boiled it for 60 minutes with hops thrown in at:
Also, a bit of Irish Moss thrown in near the end. I pitched last night and the yeast are starting to go, but it’s still a little slow. It should be ready by the end of the month. Looking forward to tasting it then.
The first batch of English Muffins were made with a batter that I poured into rings on the griddle. This worked ok but didn’t seem to give the right texture or consistency. I’ve tried a couple of other recipes since then and this one has come the closest to the English Muffins that I’m used to.
Ingredients
* 1 cup soy milk
* 2 tsp active dry yeast
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/4 cup melted shortening
* 6 cups bread flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
I mixed all the ingredients together, then let it slowly rise for a day in the refrigerator. It nearly doubled in size. I pulled it out and rolled it into a sheet between 1/4″ and 3/8″ thick. Using a glass (I don’t have a round cookie cutter) I cut out muffins then placed them on a cornmeal-sprinkled cookie sheet to warm and rise for an hour. They had risen to about double their height. I misted them with water before placing them on a hot griddle. They cooked for about 5-7 minutes per side.
The dough was stiffer than I would like and they didn’t have quite as much flavor as I wanted, but are the closest I’ve made so far. For the next batch, I plan to replace the active dry yeast with sour dough starter and give it longer rise time. I think will help with both problems I had this time.
My friend Aimee sent me this recipe for vegan sausage. It took me too long to get around to making it, but we had people over for brunch this morning and I decided now was the time to try it out. None of our brunch guests were vegan, but they all enjoyed this. Once you have all the spices out, it’s pretty easy to throw this together.
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp crushed sage
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
2 pinches cayenne
1 Tbsp milled flaxseed
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup oat or wheat bran
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp Bragg’s liquid aminos
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the quinoa and water, let
boil for 10 minutes. Grind nutritional yeast through flaxseed in a spice
grinder. Combine spice mix with flour and oats, add to quinoa and stir.
Combine water and liquid aminos. Add liquid mixture to quinoa mixture
and mix well. Form mixture into 2″ balls and flatten slightly into
patties. Fry with a little oil until brown, about 3 minutes per side.
After getting the French Country bread recipe working well, I wanted to try something new. Instead of increasing the non-white flours slowly, I just eliminated the white bread flour completely. The dough was wetter than other breads I’ve made recently, but I think the wetness added to the oven spring.
Mix:
503g Whole wheat flour
30g Oat flakes
126g Rye flour
14g Salt
29g Sugar
450g Water
Let stand 20 minutes. Add:
7g Yeast
310g Levain
29g Vegetable oil
I ran out of time to bake this so I put it in the refrigerator while we went to a movie, then let it sit on the counter over night. In the morning, it had risen by about 50%. It had various size bubbles in the dough and was still wetter than I’m used to working. I formed it into a boule and let it rise again in a metal bowl lined with a well floured cloth napkin. About four hours later, I baked it at 450F for 40 minutes with a cup of ice added for steam at the start.
The crumb is a little tighter than usual, but it’s still airy and I think smaller bubbles are to be expected with a whole wheat bread. Overall, I think it turned out well. This bread may become a regular, especially in colder months.
This has become my “go to” bread recipe recently. The first few loaves did not come out well. I let the bread rise for the amount of time the recipes suggested, but didn’t really pay much attention to the temperature in the kitchen. As a results, the bread never rose enough. Once I started letting the dough rise for a longer period, the results were much improved. This improvement came as an accident (we went to a friend’s house and stayed longer than expected), but has now become a regular part of the 36 hour cycle of making this bread. Yes, 36 hours is a long time to make a loaf of bread, but very little of that time are you actually doing anything.
Bring starter out of refrigerator and make levain by adding:
135g Flour
175g Water
Let stand for 8-12 hours. Then mix:
250g water (room temp or slightly warmer)
440g Bread flour
30g Whole wheat flour
30g Rye flour
Let stand 20 minute to hydrate the flour. Then add:
310g Levain (sour dough starter)
2g Yeast (optional; not needed but speeds up the process)
10g salt
Knead for about 10 minutes. Let stand until it double in size (between
3 and 12 hours depending on room temp). Divide and form 2 or 3 loaves.
Let rise until it grows to about 1.5 to 2 times it’s size (1-8 hours).
Dock tops of loaves with a razor or other sharp knife. Bake at 450 F
for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 400 and bake for another 15-ish
minutes. When putting the loaves in the oven, throw 1/2-1 cup of ice
into the bottom of the oven (preferably into cast iron fry pan or
skillet)
14g Honey
14g Oil
350g Warm Soy milk
335g Bread Flour
6g Salt
10g Starter
5g Apple Cider Vinegar
2g Baking Soda
45g Water
Mix all ingredients except the baking soda and water. Let stand 10 minutes. Combine the water and soda, then mix with batter. Heat griddle to low-medium heat (2 out of 5 on my stove). While batter is rising and griddle is warming, lightly oil the inside of english muffin rings or large canning bands. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into each ring and allow about 10 minutes to cook. Flip over and allow another 10 minutes.
Well, this was my first attempt to make English muffins and the came out somewhat like I had hoped. There is still plenty of room for improvements but they seem like they will work for breakfast tomorrow.
When I sliced into the muffins, they had a tight crumb with small bubbles. I think the recipe needs to be wetter. We’ll try it again soon and let it sit over night to see if that improves the texture. The flavors came out a little sweeter than I expected but tasty enough to have another.
So last weekend I was looking for a race for June (I ran in May, I just haven’t written about it yet). There was a women-only run on Saturday but no other races. Luckily I found a race on Sunday. It was not a standard race. For one thing it was only one mile. For another, it was on hippity hops. If you’re not familiar with hippity hops, you’re not alone. I had no idea what they were, but it sounded fun. Turns it a hippity hop is like a yoga ball with a handle. You sit on it and bounce your way along the mile course. Despite how fun this sounds, it must be pointed out that this was the hardest one mile race I’ve ever done. It took me just under 21 minutes and I was sore for a few days afterwards. The event took place in Julia Davis park as part of a day of fun and fund raising for Girls on the Run. I read about it and saw the World’s Record for a mile on hippity hop was 13 minutes. Thinking it was a good cause and that a 13 minute mile is pretty slow, I decided to try it. I showed up early and did a few practice hops before the race. It felt fine, but not like I knew what I was doing. When we lined up for the start, I sae just how small this event was. There were about 20 racers. The race started and I was out with the fast pack, but after about eight to ten bounces, the leaders were already pulling away from me. As fast as I tried to hop, there was no keeping up with them. After a quarter of a mile, I came to the first water stop and paused to let my arms relax. I had assumed that my legs would get the workout, but my arms and back did most of the work moving the hippity hop. I managed to hold on to fifth place through the first three-quarters of a mile, even when I fell off the back of the hippity hop (twice). In the last quarter of a mile, there was a slight up hill and I couldn’t get the hop up it. I kept hopping up but couldn’t go forward. At this point, one more person passed me and I finished in sixth place overall. Although I didn’t do it, one of the racers did set a new World’s Record with a time of 12:09. I felt glad to finish and later heard that about half the field dropped out. It was a ridiculous event and I was sore for three days after, but I’m looking forward to next year. My goals for that are to finish faster and maybe even try hopping before race day.
Over the past year or so, I’ve been getting into bread baking. We heard about the five minute artisan bread recipe on Splendid Table and decided to try it. Our first loaf came out really well. Better than we expected actually. Soon we wanted additional recipes and improved technique tips, so it was necessary to buy the book. Unfortunately, the book didn’t have as many tips as I had hoped, but the internet was loaded with them.
I’ve found that baking bread and brewing beer were very similar, except that the turn around time on the bread is much shorter. This “rapid prototyping” meant that I could experiment with lots of variables in as short period and find what worked best for me. At first, I was baking about one loaf a week and buying bread from the store to supplement the home made stuff. Now, I’m up to about three loaves a week and sometimes more if friends request some. We haven’t bought bread from the store in at least six months.
What I’ve found so far is the best loaves start as very wet dough. Almost too wet to work with. Also, to get improved flavor, I use about 1/3 the amount of yeast the recipe calls for. In the five minute bread book, they recommend steaming when the bread goes in the oven by putting a cup of water in the bottom of the oven. That may work in Seattle, but in Boise, it’s too dry for that method. Instead the loaf spends the first half of the bake in an inverted pot that I mist twice to keep steamy. That seems to make a big difference in the crust.
So at this point, the bread experiment is going well. It’s turning out good results and I’m having fun trying new variations each time. And with that, it’s time to go bake the next experiment.
A Runner's Ramblings 