Category: Everyday Life

Finally, (a bit of) success?

It first happened on May 4th, Greenery Day.
It was free admission day at the Fukuoka City Zoo and Botanical Gardens, so we wanted to have a picnic lunch there.
So I thought I could try to bake ‘Heidi’s bread’, which I saw in the newspaper the other day.
I’ve never yet had a good result baking. I haven’t learned how. I have done some baking, but anyway I am very much a beginner.

The recipe says to knead. So I just kneaded it. I didn’t know how long I should knead it.
The recipe says the first rising. So I set our convection oven 40 degrees (the ‘yeast rising’ setting) and followed the recipe. To my amateur’s eye, the dough didn’t seem to rise much. I had no idea, but just followed the recipe for bench time and the second rising.
The result – I baked a strange thing like a scone. The taste wasn’t so bad but it didn’t look like bread at all.

It must have been the fault of our old yeast, I thought; so we bought a new package of yeast. And next day (the 5th) I tried to bake it again, without giving up. This second time – slightly better, but still like a scone.
Then in the evening, I tried to bake butter rolls using a recipe that came with the oven. I thought it must be the oven’s fault this time. The recipe showed how the dough should be.
Almost at midnight, about five hours later, we said ‘They are not so bad’, and ate rolled stuff like a cookie. (Because we have a small combination microwave/convection oven, I had to do the first and second rising in two batches: that’s why it took such a long time to bake.) Next morning (the 6th), of course we ate the hard leftovers.

And just after that, I decided to bake bagels, which had turned out like rice cakes the past few times I tried to make them. I really like bagels. I’m longing for the tasty bagels that I was served to eat at my old homestay house! I should have learned how to bake it from her.
In the result, the taste and rising are almost like bagels!
Just the shape was distorted though… For my baking, it was kind of successful!

I think the main event of my Golden Week was baking.
Chris, thanks for your support. You said ‘They’re all tasty,’ and ate them all.

– YS, 7 May 2007

7 May 2007