A few weeks ago I decided to make some bread for my lunch (I’d bring the bread with some deli meat and sliced cheese – very European I know). I decided to just make two boules and bring one for a co-worker who has asked for me to bring some bread for her previously (little did I know that she’d be out sick). I went back and found an old recipe and tweaked it slightly.
Ingredients:
Preferment:
350 g bread flour
364 g water
3 g yeast
Remaining ingredients
350 g bread flour
266 g water
14 g salt
I mixed up the preferment and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I then added that to the remaining ingredients above. I mixed these up thoroughly and then let it sit for the water to absorb before I kneaded it.
I then proceeded to knead it for approximately 15 minutes until it was relatively smooth and I could do the “window” test – not perfectly but close enough. I then set it in a bowl, covered it and used the proof setting on the oven to allow it to rise (double in size).
I pulled the dough out, did the knead and fold method a few times with 30 minutes in between before dividing the dough into 2.
Last weekend I ran the Shamrock’n half marathon here in town. I had previously done this race 5 years ago and actually PRed it with my only sub-2. I hadn’t even done much speed work and somehow just mentally pushed myself to a sub-2. This year I had no time goal and just wanted to run a decent race.
Race overview: Easy packet pick-up, good amount of porta-potties at race start, flat and fast course, good weather, nice finish line amenities.
The night before the race I had my usual pizza pre-race meal. Initially we were going to eat at Federalist Public House, but it was packed and so we ended up just getting the pizzas to go. Race morning came early as per my usual. I hadn’t realized that this race fell on daylight savings time until the week before the race. So with the “spring forward,” I was getting one less hour of sleep than usual. I didn’t sleep quite as well because of anxiety of the time change but probably managed a decent 5.5-6 hours probably, which is a lot better than when I first started doing races.
In the last 5 years, technology has really taken off and this year for parking you had the option of reserving a spot in one of the local parking garages/lots before race day. On the web site they didn’t list the parking structure I previously parked in that wasn’t too far from the race start/finish. I made the decision to park in Old Sacramento, which was about a 3/4 mile walk to the race start. I chose that lot because it meant not having to take the freeway and also I was hoping to avoid traffic and it was a success. The trek from the parking lot to Raley Field and the race start took me across the Tower Bridge.
Tower BridgePyramid building & Sacramento RiverRiver Walk
We forgot to buy some bread for the week for lunches and such so I decided I’d give my hand at making a burger bun to use for sandwiches. I perused a few different recipes online and cobbled together my own version as below.
Ingredients:
Warm milk – 1.5 cups
Egg – 1 large
Melted butter – 4 Tbsp
Sugar – 2 Tbsp
Active Dry Yeast – 1 Tbsp
Salt – 1.5 tsp
Whole wheat flour – 3 cups
All-purpose flour – 1.5 cups
Mix warm milk, egg, melted butter, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and incorporate until frothy. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix the 2 types of flours and the salt.
Add wet to dry and mix.
Dump mixture onto countertop and knead for 5-7 minutes.
Form into ball and place in oiled bowl and allow to rise (double in size) – ~45 min to 2 hours.
Punch down, pour onto countertop and separate into 8-10 pieces.
Let rest for 10 minutes before forming into balls.
Form each piece into a ball and then flattened to get more hamburger bun shape.
Allow to rise (mine didn’t rise as much as I’d like).
Apply egg wash to each bun.
Pre-heat oven to 380 F
Place in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes (I did 19 minutes).
Cover with kitchen towel for 15 minutes – I read this is supposed to help keep the bread rolls soft.
Last month I tried a new pizza dough recipe. A few months before that, I had read in Men’s Health about an easy pizza dough that did not require hours of preparation (I had been using a no-knead dough recipe that required an 18 hour rise (more details below). I am always looking for both more efficient and tasty recipes for pizza dough. My wife enjoys the one I had been making but I am all for tweaking and improving so I decided to try this new (to me) recipe. I was fairly certain I had left the magazine in a spot in my treadmill room but lo and behold it wasn’t there. I resorted to trying to google the same recipe and don’t know if it was the exact one I had read about initially but I went with it.
Quicker pizza dough ingredients:
6 cups AP flour
2 1/4 cups room temperature water (recipe called for cold water)
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp kosher salt
Add 3 cups of flour and 1/2 tsp yeast to 2 1/4 cups of water in a large bowl and combine
In a separate bowl, mix remaining 3 cups of flour with the salt.
I then added in the flour mix to the flour-water combination (from step 1) and kneaded it within the bowl for about 5 minutes.
I let the dough rest – covered – for 30 minutes.
The dough was separated into 4 (relatively) parts and 3 of them saved in saran wrap and frozen for later use.
I split the dough into 2 balls and made pizzas from them.
I know that I haven’t posted anything in quite a long time. Honestly I ran out of steam. With the way that this year has gone (from everything in the world to everything in my little world), I just lost all motivation to post. I drastically decreased my baking though still kept up with running (just not to the degree I had been doing it earlier this year). I didn’t have any races after my Spring ones so didn’t feel the urge to run a ton and post about it. I did work on increasing my running intensity (doing intervals on the treadmill and outside), which I think is good for my overall fitness.
There have been a lot of other big things going on such as re-doing our entire kitchen and taking up a new hobby. Since I know this blog isn’t really read regularly or even much at all, I’m going to jot down some notes/thoughts from the past year mostly so I remember it.
Early 2017 involved some big changes at work with new co-workers that I worked with closely. I enjoyed it as I got to put on a different work hat — that of being a mentor. Also there were a ton of staffing changes and something I’ve started to be more comfortable with, which is change. I’ve always been the type to like everything to stay fairly constant. Change is/was always a scary word to me. I need to take the advice of my father, who has the philosophy to “go with the flow” (of the river…or life). I think that at least with regards to work, I’ve become better at adjusting to changes.
The highlight of the early part of 2017 was two-fold. Japan (see posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) and the Big Sur Marathon. While I was sick for the latter half of the Japan trip, it was still such an amazing place to visit and great experience. The Big Sur Marathon was a bucket-list marathon and I’m still amazed I got in on the first go around with the lottery system. Even though I bonked (and didn’t have the best taper leading up to the race due to Japan), I still enjoyed the experience overall. Most likely I’ll never do it again so it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Plus you can’t beat visiting Monterey/Carmel.
The latter half of 2017 was focused mostly on the kitchen. At some point I’ll probably put up some posts about it since it was a big part of the year. I’m happy with the outcome and glad that it is done with.
Sneak peek
A trip down to San Diego at the end of the year was a nice way to cap it off as well. Again, I somehow was sick for this trip as well so even though I didn’t feel the greatest, I still enjoyed it because it is San Diego! Continue reading “2017 Year-end wrap-up”→
StewsCat 