another boat anchor

[kamomil]

well I baked another loaf of soda bread, this time half whole wheat flour, and half pastry flour. ugh... the crust is still hard, and it's not done in the centre after 40 min of baking. I'm going to mix/knead a shorter amount of time next time, I think the chemical action is happening too much, whatever that is. *sigh*

Edit to add: I'm baking it at 450 F, I'm going to try a lower temp next time... I think the higher temp might account for the uneven cooking. I'm getting suspicious that my oven might be a bit off, I'm remembering now that my broccoli pastry frozen things cook in 15 min, instead of the 20 min they say on the package.

Comments

[gabbytheguy.livejournal.com]

Looks good on the outside...I'd eat it!

[noodlefan.livejournal.com]

LOL at the title...
AS the other commenter said: it looks good on the outside!

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Thanks... it smells good and it does disappear quickly. :D

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

it does... and it does taste yummy... but my aunt's bread however is not hard on the outside, that's what I'm aiming for.

[noodlefan.livejournal.com]

But here in Europe a hard outside is considered a "premium feature" :-)

But I understand what you want: to reproduce the recipe.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

I noticed! Why is that? Sometimes I have gone to a Portuguese bakery and all the rolls seem to be very crusty. If I buy rolls, I prefer them to be soft on the outside - I have started to poke them with the tongs to make sure they are not hard. :D

[sapphire-77.livejournal.com]

Did you get the comment I made a while back about the online Irish grocer? Buying the right flour my help, plus they have a message board you can ask recipe questions on. Anyway, I know how annoying this can be. Good Luck.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks, I meant to answer you... I thought that using pastry flour might help - it tastes different, but the outside is still just as hard. I have to admit that the idea of the shipping prices makes me reluctant to order online, just yet.

[noodlefan.livejournal.com]

Because we think that crispy and crusty outside is a sign of freshness ;-)
(remember French baguette bread?)

> I have started to poke them with the tongs to make sure they are not hard. :D

LOL!

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

yeah... I spelled it wrong on purpose, to be silly.

haha it means lots of people on the internet can't spell. Luckily Google is smart enough to flag bad spelling, I use it as a spellcheck for things that aren't in the dictionary.

[noodlefan.livejournal.com]

So is it the same kind of misspelling like "biatch"?

And BTW, how do you pronounce that word?
Just like "bitch" or does it have 2 syllables ("by age")?

[gabbytheguy.livejournal.com]

I looove a nice crusty loaf of bread...sure, sometimes hard bread means it's not fresh...you just have to know where to go for the good stuff, but some good crunch on the top is just fabulous!

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

"biatch" is pronounced "beeyotch", I guess it's an exaggeration somehow. I'm not sure if its aggressiveness is decreased or increased in that form, eg. like "shite" or "feck"

"fireinds" I just made up. Sometimes I second guess the spelling where i and e are concerned, eg. wierd/weird, friend/freind so that's kind of what it came from I guess.

[noodlefan.livejournal.com]

Thanks!