Home Projects: Towels and Bread

We've got hard water and  I use environmentally friendly laundry soap (which, let's face it doesn't work as well as the toxic stuff).  Our white towels were icky. They were perfectly serviceable, however. So Coleman and I made a quick change to them this week. Coleman chose a color called Golden Ochre from iDye, I bought two packets. Set the washer on the hottest setting, placed towels and dye into the washer and two hours latter; Voila! New towels. Check out the fancy one that had a man-made fiber in the design (top image).

Ah, that's better.

home made bread, mmmm

I've been baking a lot of bread these past few weeks (except the week my back was hurting me). My favorite recipe so far is from The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, which Chris gave me this year for my birthday. It's for potato bread, which is white bread, yes. Indeed it is. I'm working on getting the boys to expand their dietary horizons, but they are committed to white bread.

Tassajara Potato Bread
Makes 2 Loaves

1 Tbs dry yeast
1 3/4 C warm water
3 Tbs honey
1/3 cup milk powder
3 C unbleached white flour
2 to 3 small potatoes, uncooked, or 1 1/2 C cooked potatoes, mashed
2 tsp salt
3 Tbs oil (I use canola)
3 to 4 C unbleached white flour
Egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tbs water)

Dissolve the yeast in the water along with the honey. Add the milk powder and 3 Cups unbleached white flour. Beat thoroughly to form a thick batter. Cover and set aside in a warm place and let rise for about 45 minutes.

Cook the potatoes. When they are done boiling, remove them from the wter and mash well. (I save the water from these and use it in the above step).

After the batter has risen, add to it the salt, oil and mashed potatoes. Mix well to blend. Fold in two or more cups of flour, turning the bowl a quarter turn between folds. When the dough comes away from the sides and bottom of bowl, turn it out onto a floured board and begin kneading. Knead for 5 minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Place the dough in a n oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 50 minutes.

Punch down and let rise again, until doubled. About 45 minutes.

Shape the dough into 2 loaves, place in oiled pans, and let rise until doubled. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while the loaves are rising.

Slit the tops, brush with egg wash, milk or butter. Bake for one hour or until golden brown on all sides. I prefer it with the wash, but the crust stays softer if you don't do a wash at all, and that's the way the boys like it, so that's what I do. Also, I have had mixed results with the slit top, so I've stopped doing that as well. I really like the way it looks, but if your timing isn't right and you've waited to long on the last rise when you slit it the loaves will fall.

Coleman choppin' up the potatoes for our potato bread.