Christmas was very good this year. Not only did I spend an ENTIRE day with my mom (and the stand mixer of course) making delicious Christmas cookies, I also got a Bread Maker and an ice-cream maker for my KitchenAid. First to try was the Bread Maker, and I decided on Rye Bread (we have pastrami and swiss so it was a natural decision). Went to Pilgrim's (our neighborhood natural food store) for the Rye Flour, the caraway seeds, and the powdered milk (which was nice to buy in bulk as its fairly expensive). Then picked up the remaining ingredients, including a 5 lb. bag of King Arthur Bread Flour (yes I splurged a little), and since I was there I grabbed ingredients to make ice-cream (carb central at my house!). Got home and added everything to the bread maker pushed the button and voila! 3 hours 43 minutes till fresh bread. When the bread finally got to the baking portion the whole house started to smell sooooo good! There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh-baked bread. Well, I walked upstairs to check on the bread and noticed something was missing from the countertop. Walked into the living room, and saw the puppy had destroyed the ziploc bag of bread flour (yes the one I splurged on!!) so there was 5 lbs of flour EVERYWHERE (including all over the puppy) The other dog followed me up and next thing I know he was eating the flour too! So both dogs have flour plastered to their fur... kicked both dogs outside and cleaned up the mess. Meanwhile the bread had finished so I had set it to cool. Let the older dog back in the house (he's in a big barking phase!) and I went to take the vacuum back downstairs. I barely reached the bottom of the stairs when I remembered the bread. I ran up the stairs only to find the cooling rack was EMPTY. Yep the dog grabbed the entire loaf of bread and ran as fast as he could. Finally I was able to get the bread back, but it was ruined at this point. I don't think the dogs appreciate the fact that I didn't kill them that night! Since I was out of flour I decided to chuck the bread making idea and move on to the ice-cream. ('Cause really is there anything ice-cream can't fix?) The recipe I used called for a whole vanilla bean, but since I'm the kind of person who uses turmeric instead of saffron (it costs how much????) I substituted vanilla extract. I made a custard out of whipping cream, whole milk, vanilla, sugar, and 6 egg yolks. I could have just eaten it like that but I was good and put it in the fridge to chill for 3 hours. Finally the 3 hours were up, and it was time to make the ice-cream. Fitted the (chilled for 15 hours) bowl onto the mixer and set up the dasher and turned it on. Poured in the vanilla custard mix (and oops I forgot the mint extract) and let it mix for 20 mins. At first I didn't think it was working, but right around 18 mins in it started to look like ice-cream. The last minute of mixing I added in chocolate chips (next time I will use minis), and then it was done. Most of it I put in a container in the freezer to harden, but I did take a little for a taster. WOW! It was really good... Way better than that supermarket stuff! I can't wait to try and make some other ice-creams, and also sorbets and sherbets. Our house will be the place to be this summer!
Feeling better since the ice-cream came out so good, I vowed to make bread the next day (and let it cool WAY up high away from naughty dogs). This time I bought the cheaper (Gold Medal) bread flour and luckily I had enough of everything else so I didn't need to spend too much more. If it's possible, I think the house smelled even better with this loaf. Let it cool on top of the fridge, and then it was time to slice (with the dogs standing by drooling). I used the new electric knife Daren got for Xmas (yay for electric knives!) and cut it into sandwich size slices (it actually looked like store bought bread). I cut off a larger chunk of the bread butt* for a taster, placed a small piece of pastrami on it and YUM! Thankfully it was worth all the effort. The dogs also got small pieces to try and they loved them (although the dogs love most everything, so they aren't very good taste-testers). I made Daren a pastrami/Swiss/garlic mayo sandwich for lunch with the still slightly warm bread. Daren can be quite picky (and also brutally honest LOL) so he was a good (if ever so slightly biased) tester. Whew! Even he liked it! Next up for the bread maker is a 10-grain bread (a mix I bought pre-packaged at the store) and who knows what else... I see a lot of bread making in my future....
Till next time....
