Kitchen Adventures
Samuel toddles around so casually these days. Dressed like a little boy, wearing shoes, and walking, he looks taller than Isaac did at this age and surprisingly mature.
He climbs everything. Isaac would have, too, but we put baby gates up all around our apartment to prevent him from climbing the truly dangerous stuff. Unfortunately, the doorways in our house are too wide for baby gates. How many times have I turned around in the kitchen, only to turn back to the stove and find Samuel perched on the handle of the oven's warming drawer, reaching precariously towards the flaming stove top?
"NOOO!!!" I roar, as I promptly remove him. Within seconds, he's at it again. I finally started locking him up in his highchair while I cook.
Isaac was simply not allowed in the kitchen this young.
Speaking of kitchens, today I'm experimenting twice over.
Adventure #1 -- Raw Milk Yogurt
I'm using the leftover yogurt at the bottom of my most recent jar as a starter culture, and trying to keep the milk mixture warm without being too hot. Yogurt made from pasteurized milk is less finicky about temperatures. You can keep it in a warmed, but turned off oven overnight and awake to find decent yogurt there. But the enzymes in raw milk will die if heated above 117 degrees, and they don't tolerate heat too well. Getting my oven to hover in between 95 and 105 degrees initially challenged me. Now, thanks to a handy kitchen thermometer, I've learned that my oven's "Proof Bread" setting keeps it right at 105. So, for the rest of today, I'll leave it in there on the Proof Bread setting. But that first hour was a killer. I warmed the oven, then turned it off, then found it didn't cool off quickly enough, then started experimenting with all the different settings on my oven's warmer drawer until I finally discovered that the lowest bread proofing setting was ideal. I'm sure the yogurt will turn out well, as getting it to solidify is usually just a matter of letting it set out in the warmth long enough, however long that may be. But, I might have killed off all the awesomeness of it being raw by inadvertently putting it in a too-warm oven during that first little stretch of time. Oh well. Even if it isn't raw, it'll be properly cultured, and that's the most important thing.
Adventure #2 -- Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread
I gave up on the famous NYTimes No-Knead recipe last year, when I realized that making it with whole wheat turned it into a dense brick with a way-too-thick crust. But I recently got wind of this guy's genius plan to simply add a little extra gluten and water into the mix. Because the dough ferments so long, it's Nourishing Traditions friendly. I simply added some whey to the fermenting juices and left out the salt, as Nourishing Traditions warns that salt added to the fermenting process inhibits the break down of the phytic acid in the grain. In her other recipes, she encourages us to add salt while punching the bread down and kneading, just before the second rise. As this recipe doesn't call for any kneading, but does call for a second rise, I'm not sure what I'll do. We'll see how it turns out. I expect it to taste sour and yeasty, like solidified beer. My ultimate goal will be to find a 100% Whole Wheat No-Knead bread recipe that uses a sourdough starter instead of baker's yeast. Then it will be the bread that keeps on giving and giving, much like the replenishing yogurt supply.
He climbs everything. Isaac would have, too, but we put baby gates up all around our apartment to prevent him from climbing the truly dangerous stuff. Unfortunately, the doorways in our house are too wide for baby gates. How many times have I turned around in the kitchen, only to turn back to the stove and find Samuel perched on the handle of the oven's warming drawer, reaching precariously towards the flaming stove top?
"NOOO!!!" I roar, as I promptly remove him. Within seconds, he's at it again. I finally started locking him up in his highchair while I cook.
Isaac was simply not allowed in the kitchen this young.
Speaking of kitchens, today I'm experimenting twice over.
Adventure #1 -- Raw Milk Yogurt
I'm using the leftover yogurt at the bottom of my most recent jar as a starter culture, and trying to keep the milk mixture warm without being too hot. Yogurt made from pasteurized milk is less finicky about temperatures. You can keep it in a warmed, but turned off oven overnight and awake to find decent yogurt there. But the enzymes in raw milk will die if heated above 117 degrees, and they don't tolerate heat too well. Getting my oven to hover in between 95 and 105 degrees initially challenged me. Now, thanks to a handy kitchen thermometer, I've learned that my oven's "Proof Bread" setting keeps it right at 105. So, for the rest of today, I'll leave it in there on the Proof Bread setting. But that first hour was a killer. I warmed the oven, then turned it off, then found it didn't cool off quickly enough, then started experimenting with all the different settings on my oven's warmer drawer until I finally discovered that the lowest bread proofing setting was ideal. I'm sure the yogurt will turn out well, as getting it to solidify is usually just a matter of letting it set out in the warmth long enough, however long that may be. But, I might have killed off all the awesomeness of it being raw by inadvertently putting it in a too-warm oven during that first little stretch of time. Oh well. Even if it isn't raw, it'll be properly cultured, and that's the most important thing.
Adventure #2 -- Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread
I gave up on the famous NYTimes No-Knead recipe last year, when I realized that making it with whole wheat turned it into a dense brick with a way-too-thick crust. But I recently got wind of this guy's genius plan to simply add a little extra gluten and water into the mix. Because the dough ferments so long, it's Nourishing Traditions friendly. I simply added some whey to the fermenting juices and left out the salt, as Nourishing Traditions warns that salt added to the fermenting process inhibits the break down of the phytic acid in the grain. In her other recipes, she encourages us to add salt while punching the bread down and kneading, just before the second rise. As this recipe doesn't call for any kneading, but does call for a second rise, I'm not sure what I'll do. We'll see how it turns out. I expect it to taste sour and yeasty, like solidified beer. My ultimate goal will be to find a 100% Whole Wheat No-Knead bread recipe that uses a sourdough starter instead of baker's yeast. Then it will be the bread that keeps on giving and giving, much like the replenishing yogurt supply.