Friday, August 1, 2008

...Read the Manual




It's day 2 of the new breadmaker and I am determined to master the recipes in the instruction booklet. The breadmaker I've already mastered, that's easy. The recipes in the booklet on the other hand...

...I spent an hour last night trying to come to grips with the "terminology" - or lack thereof. For example, PROG. 7: DOUGH. Here is what I see:

Quantity is 200g
Ok, well, that is straight forward. 200g is, according to the online conversion calculator, 7.05479 ounces. Hmph. Uh, oh, that can't be right. I mean the 200g can't be right because of the rest of the ingredients. When you look at the 750g loaf ingredients, it calls for 3 and 1/3 cups flour and 1 cup plus 1T of water so this dough recipe should weigh, well, way more. Siiiiigggh.

hey mom

Ingredients
Flour
2
Semolina flour 1
Salt 1
Oil 1
Water 3/1 + 2
Yeast 1
Hmmmmmm. Not so much. Methinks something got lost in translation when they were trying to write this manual.

mom!

Not now guys, I'm real busy; we'll go out later.

Well then. You can see the problem, right? I mean, I'm not imagining things, right? And what the heck is the amount of water? 3/1 + 2 cups??? Let's see, 2 cups flour plus 1cup semolina is 3 cups flour. So, 3 cups of flour should need about, ummmmm, 1 to 1.25 cups liquid. I think.

but mom, mom!

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh. Ok, ok, I'll take a break. WHAT?!

um, der's a deehr monstah inna yahd
uh huh, i sawd it tew
yup, a deehr monstah
com kwik mom!
it eatin' stuff
kwik mom open dooah we scawe dem away

Oh. Well. Um, crap, there's a deer, no 2 deer. They are on the other side of the holly bushes, about 20 feet from the door and garden yard. I scrunch my eyes. It is the cute little Island Buck Mule deer and his mate. Opening the door to the dog yard I holler at the cute little Island Mule deer to leave my garden boat yard alone while the kids run out hooting and hollering showing how tough they are. The cute little Island Mule Deer snicker and saunter slowly away shaking their heads at the dumb Island Human and the dumb Island Canines.

Back indoors, I settle down to demystify the recipes. Where was I? Ummmm, oh right, weight of dough versus ingredient amounts and what the heck IS the water measurement? I'm getting a headache.

I look at some of the other recipes. My headache grows. I really want to try and make some quickbread in this new machine. But the recipe...well, like I said yesterday, I can follow it up to the salt. They lose me there:
Eggs 3
Butter 1/2

Sugar 1 plus 1/2
Salt 1/1
Flour 2 plus 2
Lemon 1
Yeast 2,5

Hmph. So, salt...1 teaspoon?? Lemon...juice? of one lemon? Lemon zest? And we know there is no yeast in quick bread, so, 2.5...teaspoons of...baking powder? Anybody?

I am going to try it. Going to make the lemon bread. Elsewhere in the booklet, in troubleshooting, they refer a few times to baking powder where they should mean yeast.

Here we go again.

Say it with me now:

"What could possibly go wrong...again?"


2 comments:

Kate VanDewark Plummer said...

Oh Lord, you are truely a sucker for punishment! I do, however, commend you for your perserverance.

Love you!
K.T.

Linda VanDewark Stoodley said...

gee thanks Kate! sigh, still trying to figger it out, grin.