Chemistry Experiment or Cooking?

I am very excited to introduce my very first batch of root beer ever! I admit I did not come up with this concoction all by myself. I have a kit that came with all the ingredients (except sugar) and bottles. Actually I wanted to try this out to see if we could do this as part of the 4-H Summer Fun Program (Bio-tech Day Camp) next year. You see making root beer is more than following a recipe (which I am told is the only way I can cook) you have to watch temperatures and timing and then be patient.

After mixing all the ingredients and filling the bottles it was time for carbonation. This is different then the process that soda usually takes in factories. There is wine yeast in this recipe and the yeast eats the sugar in the soda to carbonate. This process takes place in a warm dark place. When the bottles are firm they go into the fridge for 24 hours and they are ready to be opened. Turning the lid the pressure lets off like any soda. When you pour it it does not foam up like mass production root beer. You can see some bubbles but it is not quite as fizzy. When you drink it you can feel the natural carbonation. Overall the root beer has a smooth and creamy taste. Whether you think this is chemistry or cooking the end result is the same, mmm mmmm good.

MMM mmm Good!

There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. You have heard of comfort foods, well this is a comfort smell for me. Thanks to my sourdough starter it is one that I will get to smell about once a week.

You may remember my post last year about the Sourdough bread I was making. Sourdough bread was a favorite of my dad's and something that has always been coveted in our family. The key to this is making sure the starter stays alive. If you don't bake with the starter once a week you must feed it (discard a certain about of flour and water and add more). Sourdough is not an easy bread to make. It requires patience. A great deal of patience. Usually what happens is that on Friday night after I get home from work and have dinner I get the starter out and start making sponge. By Saturday morning the sponge is usually ready and I am making dough. It takes all day Saturday for the dough to rise. Right before I go to bed I punch the dough down and put it in a greased bread loaf and let it rise overnight and most of Sunday. When it has reached the top of the loaf pan it is time to put it in the oven for an hour. After cooling in the pan, and dump it out on the cooling rack. Suddenly, I have a loaf of Sourdough bread. Doubling the recipe doesn't take much, it just requires twice as many ingredients and bowls for rising. Wait time can happen all at once.

I make this once a week, but don't expect a post every week concerning bread. Of course if it is an interesting situation I am likely to post about it. Just know that if you smell that most wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread over the weekend chances are it is coming from my little oven in between cakes and other baked delectable. If you are interested in purchasing a loaf of sourdough please feel free to contact me at customcake4you@aol.com. Time to go slice a piece and watch the butter melt on my fresh out of the oven warm bread. YUM!