cooking for bookclub...

Book club meets tonight.  About 3 times a year, we review a cookbook, cook from it, and break bread together.  Tonight is cookbook night.  Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard is our book, and I haven't read it.  Fortunately, I did read my recipe Saturday....and discovered I had a two-day project ahead of me.

The sweet potato onion bread was not my first choice for recipes.  In fact, it wasn't a choice at all. But by the time it got around to me to choose, it was obvious that no 'bread' had been picked; I'm the 'bread-maker' of the group, so I got 'assigned'.  

Join me on my adventure.  Yesterday evening.  Make the starter. OK. I probably need to preface this whole post by saying...I'm not a  'by-the-book' kind of cook usually, but in this case, I plan to follow the recipe like it is a chemistry experiment (which for me, it sort of is).

The starter was supposed to be very sticky, set for 12 hours, after which you should have 'lots of big bubbles'.  Well, my starter was on the dry side...and to me, those look like itty, bitty bubbles.  I'm already thinking I'll have to dump more yeast in the bread.

Moving on.  Today.

Caramelize 5 onions in 1 T oil + 1 tsp salt.  Check.  Maybe they need to be more caramelized.  I can do that later.

One cup roasted sweet potato puree.  ???  No where in the whole book does it say how they want the sweet potato pureed.  With oil?  Salted?  My hubby chimed in and said...'I'd open a can of sweet potatoes and put them in the oven for a couple minutes'.  (His idea of 'cooking' is making toast, so I didn't take his advice.)  

Mashed up sweet potato rounds that I roasted at 400 in a little vegetable oil and some salt.  Check.

Make the dough.

In the bowl of a mixer, fitted with a hook, stir together the flour (3 3/4 c)  and water (1 3/4 c + 3 tsp ...are you kidding me?!?); You will have a wet, rough dough.

Mine was rough and dry.  I'm batting 50%.  Good enough for me.

Let it set 10-20 minutes.  I can do that.

Oh, drat.  I think that was about 30 minutes ago.  I gotta go.  

My bread needs me.

(I avoided the obvious pun on purpose....apparently, the 'hook' is supposed to knead the bread for 20+ minutes.  Hope I don't burn out the motor!)

 

Comments

[valerie]

Sorry I asked you to make the bread. I sure it will taste great! 😳

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if it tastes good it will be worth it....I still have 2 more risings to go!!!!

[Ann denton]

I'm doing a blueberry and Rosemary pudding- almost a cobbler to me- hope it's good - it smells great!

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sounds yummy!!!!

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I need to hear the end of this saga. If it works out, you have an assignment for the next Cape book club meeting.

[tanna]

Okay, the suspense is killing me! We need to hear more! BTW, isn't 3 tsp. = 1 T.?? Why not just say that?? Inquiring minds want to know. LOL! Can't wait to hear! blessings ~ tanna

[karen]

did it work out? I wonder... I know you throw a nice party no matter what! Have fun :)

[jane]

Oy! I wish you luck with the bread. I'm dying to know how it came out.