On Under-Baked Bread and What to Do With It

Sometimes I like to bake bread.  After lots of trial and error, I have settled on two main tools that make this easy and enjoyable for me: parchment paper and a thermometer.  Parchment paper helps bread not to stick to pans, and it does this job beautifully.  The thermometer tells me when the bread is done.

So, how do you know when bread is done baking.

There are three main ways (thanks, Smitten Kitchen) to tell if bread is done:

1. It's brown on the outside -- This is not sufficient if you've got a tall/thick kind of bread like a sandwich loaf in a pan.
2. It sounds hollow if you tap it on the bottom with a stick (i.e. wooden spoon handle). This is very useful for smaller things like rolls and ciabatta.  It also works pretty well for sandwich loaves.  
3. A thermometer measures around 200F.  Sometimes 190 is fine.  Less than 190 is not fine, even if you've passed the cook time suggested in the recipe.  I bought my thermometer for cheap at a local hardware store.

But sometimes (much less often now that I have that thermometer), I will pull the bread out too soon.  And I cut into the bread, and it's gummy.  Gummy!  So then what? One can't exactly put it back into the oven once it's cooled and cut open.  And I hate throwing out food.  So I present:

Seven things to do with under-baked bread:

1. Toast 
2. French Toast
3. Grilled Cheese sandwiches
4. Stuffing/Dressing
5. Bread pudding  (since the bread's on the wetter side, you can probably ease up on the milk)
6. Shredded for breadcrumbs, like for the top of baked macaroni.
7. Cubed and toasted for croutons

Make sure to refrigerate your under-baked bread until it's gone. Since you'll be cooking it again, you don't so much need to worry about staleness, and it will go bad faster than ordinary bread.

I do especially recommend grilled cheese for this stuff.  Good luck!

In which I cook something - Brussels Sprouts

The blog has 'kitchen' in the name, so I suppose it makes sense to put some recipes in.

But first, let us discuss Brussels sprouts.  Despite the name, these miniature cabbage things were first developed in Belgium somewhere around the 17th or 18th century.  The OED records the first print use of the name in 1796, implying that they existed at that point.  (This all from my incredibly cursory internet research.  See http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq.html#brussels and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brussels_sprout)

Brussels sprouts are members of Brassica oleracea, one of my favorite species.  Unlike other varieties, which typically have only one "head" -- cabbage, kale, etc, these things grow 20 or more(?) to a stalk.

In this preparation, they are roasted in a cast iron skillet in the oven with garlic and cheese and other good things.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
adapted from Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Brussels sprouts (often they are sold in 1 lb packages)
• 2 heaping teaspoons minced garlic (I use stuff from a jar, 3-4 cloves should be right)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• black pepper
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• generous handful of pine nuts

Directions:

1. Rinse the Brussels sprouts
2. Trim the stalk end. (optional)
3. Heat oven to 350F
4. Place the sprouts into a cast iron pan (8 in diameter will hold them but only just)
5. Add garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to the pan
6. Place cover on pan (if you don't have a cover, use a spoon to accomplish step 7)
7. Shake pan with cover to coat the sprouts in the delicious additions
8. Place pan in oven for 20 minutes
9. Remove pan
10. Stir sprouts
11. Place pan back in oven for 10 minutes
12. Remove pan
13. Add cheese and pine nuts.  Do not stir.  It will look like you ought to stir.  Just dump the cheese on the sprouts and the nuts on the cheese and leave it.
14. Put pan back in oven for 5 minutes. (Total oven time = 35 minutes)
15. Remove and allow to cool.
16. Eat (maybe with a fried egg)

image captured after step 12

In which I need a new loaf pan

Today, I baked a loaf of bread.

This is not entirely true.  That is, it is true, but not complete.

Yesterday, I made bread dough, and today I baked the loaf.  (If you care, it was more or less this recipe.)  Although the recipe suggests baking it as a baguette, I prefer sandwich bread, so I put the dough into my loaf pan.  My loaf pan is was a cheap non-stick pan from Le Target that I purchased two or three or four apartments ago.  I have made bread in it many times before.  Yeast bread, quick bread, and once an altogether too-exciting loaf of molasses cake.  

For whatever reason, I did not spray the pan with non-stick spray.  Even though I have some.  Even though I know how.  Even though I've had things stick to it before (see the molasses cake incident).  Instead I just sprinkled some flour into the pan.  I do not know precisely what led to what followed.

I popped the bread into the oven and went about my business.  When the apartment filled with the really lovely scent of baking bread, I opened the oven and peered at the loaf.  It looked good.  High, crackly looking top.  It smelled good.  I put on my gloves and pulled it out.  

One technique for determining the done-ness of a loaf of bread is to rap on the bottom of the loaf (maybe with the handle of a wooden spoon).  If it sounds hollow, it is done baking.

But I couldn't get the loaf out of the pan to conduct the test.  I used a wooden bamboo spatula.  (A knife would have scratched the non-stick surface, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?)  It was stuck.  I left it to cool a bit in the pan.  When it was cool enough to touch without mittens, I got most of the bread out, minus the bottom crust.  Then I pried out the bottom crust.  The crumbs were delicious, but I was deeply disappointed that I once again would not have a beautiful sandwich bread.  (This has been an ongoing struggle.)

And then... 

Why is the side of my bread grey and sparkly? Grey and sparkly... like the loaf pan coating....

Erp.

Long story short, the pan is discolored to match the loaf crust.  I cut off the entire bottom crust of the bread (okay, it was mostly already off).  The inside of the bread is alright.

Now I need a new loaf pan.