From stinky beginnings.... |
The bottle was maybe a third or quarter full of stinky cream. I found this out by ruining a cup of coffee.
It was a snow day, so I felt like baking something. Somewhere in the back of my head was an article I read about how people used to use rotten milk as the rising agent in bread. It makes sense--all kinds of bacteria create gas, plus, you like that sourdough funkiness in bread. So I decided to experiment: use the gross cream to make bread.
I started like you would with any bread: I dissolved a package of yeast in some (about 1.5 cups) warm water with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar. I also added the bad cream (probably about a third cup) to the mix, then waited 20 minutes for the yeast to froth up:
I seemed to me this yeast got foamier than yeast usually does. Perhaps whatever microbes lived in the cream joined forces with the yeast for even more riotous fermenting?
Then, I added flour and mixed / kneaded until I had a pliant, not-too-sticky, cohesive ball:
Then let it rise for half an hour:
Ok, so I let this bread rise in a weird way: I stuck it in the dishwasher. It had just finished a load of dishes, so it was all warm and moist in there: perfect yeast weather. I wedged the bowl in among the clean plates and closed the door. The sterility of my kitchen is clearly not a top priority.
Then, I rolled the dough into little balls and brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled them with salt:
Then let them rise for another half hour:
Then baked them in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes. With 5 minutes remaining, I took them out, brushed the tops with an egg white, then put them back in.
But they were good. My high-altitude bread making has been inconsistent. Sometimes my bread comes out dense and heavy--but these were light and spongy in the middle with a nice crisp crust.
Can't wait to make sandwiches with it.
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