Post Weight Loss - Lessons Learned and Staying on Course

There are lab notes? Wow!

 

Perfect in a smoothie, especially if you tend to make it with whey or other protein powders. The kefir adds a tang, which is exactly what you need, since some of these protein sources are (overly) sweetened with the low-cal sweeteners.

 

A few days ago, I posted my bread recipe on the addadahangout thread. That, and the three posts that follow are also useful. I use a Breadmachine to knead the dough. The breadmachines are very useful in this stage, but quite bad in baking breads. I take the kneaded dough out of the machine, take out the paddle of the machine from the dough, and then set the dough on a cookie sheet, roll it flat, like a pizza. Then add walnuts, some raisins or dates in some pattern, then roll the dough into a log, bend the log to whatever shape that goes into an olive oil greased bread pan. Cover it with a wet towel, and let it sit and rise for a second time. This second rise makes for a nice uniform hole distribution within the bread. Once this is done, and the bread has the shape, I would remove the wet towel, brush the top of the bread with milk (you may use kefir also), and then sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. Then it would be baked at 375 F for 40 minutes.
when the baking is done, one would take out the pan, wait for the metal pan to cool (about 10') tap the sides of the pan with a knife handle to loosen the bread, before attempting to take it out. The bread has to sit in a cooling rack for at least a couple of hours before it can be sliced.
A bread machine can be had for less than $40 during one of those preholiday sales. It can knead you doughs for roti, chappati, naan, and many of the leavened breads without getting your fingernails messy, or having the flour go all over everywhere in the kitchen, because of breezes or electrostatics. I would recommend a breadmachine, but not baking a bread in it. Just use it as a dough maker/kneader.

From 400g. flour one could get a "regular" loaf, and two good sized baguettes. All baked at the same time under the same conditions. Here is a picture of the baguettes. Intended to make them the same size, but ...well... one turned out longer.

 

I score the bread with a sharp <deboning> knife. You can use anything that has a very sharp edge, but would not cut deep. If not scored, the aspiration (off-gassing) during the baking can cause bumps in surface.
The stand mixer is a much better kneader than a bread machine. In my dough kneader ratings, food-processor is the lowest, BM is in the middle and Stand-Mixers are supreme. However the prices of new ones are in the reverse order. SM occupy a bigger counter foot print, but they look grand, if you can afford the space.