Bread Today

Hi there,

I'm making bread today, and yet, here I am at my office. How is that, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

In the morning I mixed up:
1 T yeast
1 T salt
3 cups of warm water
When it was all stirred up I added:
1.5 c. polenta
3 c whole wheat flour
2 c. white flour (actually today it only took about 1.5 cups, but it's usually 2)
I  mix it up well and covered the bowl with a plastic shower cap lifted from a hotel still swanky enough to have such things, and let it rise while I went upstairs for an hour long conference call. When I came down it was pushing against the shower cap so I punched/stirred it down, covered it with a dusting of flour, divided it in half and made the "gluten cloak".

This is not as magical as it sounds, and it has no disappearing properties. You take each half and sort of turn it inside out, pulling the sides down and tucking them back into the middle on the bottom. You have to work fast bc the dough is sticky, and you can't get too uptight about it being perfect. The idea is that you are somehow stretching the flour that you have sprinkled on top into a "gluten cloak" that will trap the gas from the little yeastie beasties and make the bread rise. Maybe it's more magical than I thought.

Then I asked Amos to put it in the oven in an hour, at 350 for 45 minutes, and left for work. I'd send you a picture but like I said, I'm at work.

Love, Elise