Bread (5/24 weekend)

The weather cooled off this week, so Mrs HM's baking moratorium was temporarily rescinded.  Last chance to make bread (maybe) until fall.

#1.  Here's my initial dough mix from Friday night:

After rising for two hours:

I greased a loaf pan with shortening.  Mrs HM collects all manner of containers.  Shortening goes in the "grease" canister.

I poured the dough into the loaf pan.

Yum yow!  Looks tasty!  I decided to drizzle oil on top.

And, on a whim, sprinkled some oatmeal.

It didn't stick.  You need a binder for that kind of thing, and I wasn't about to use a whole egg just to put some oatmeal flakes on a loaf of bread.

I covered it with a dish towel to cool.  This holds back the steam from escaping during cooling, resulting in a softer crust. Cooling in the open gives a very hard crusty bread, which is tasty but hard to slice cleanly.

The crumb is a little denser than I would like, but it is delicious, and the crust is very nice.  I brought this loaf to the Vk house, where it was greatly enjoyed.

#2.  I made more dough on Saturday, and let it rise overnight under a damp towel.  I kneaded it and did another overnight rise.

I poured it into the pan, from a height, letting it stretch on the way.

I put a few dabs of soft butter on top.  Into the oven it went.

35 minutes later:

I got some nice additional rise in the baking there!  Sliced:

Time for grilled cheese!