Monday, February 22, 2010

There was once a magazine. This magazine was beloved by a young man. It's pages were full of suggestions on getting one's body back in shape and advice about healthful plants to sit around one's office. One day the young man's hands tightened on the pages - this is perfect! A recipe for home-made pizza dough, a manly must-have!
The young man rushed to the store to gather the few ingredients he was lacking for the honored recipe: yeast, sugar, oil. Making his way to the kitchen he boasted to me, "This is going to be the best recipe we've made yet." Throughout the process he kept it up. "This is going to be AMAZING!"
We mix the yeast and milk. We kneed for 10 minutes. We wait for it to rise.
It doesn't quite ball up like it needs to or rise like the magazine recipe said. The young man doubted.
We bake, we adorn, we bake again.
Overall it was passable. However the young man was frustrated, disappointed, and still hungry. What to do with the extra dough we were supposed to save? This batter is not the correct formula, and would ruin more pizzas if we had kept it.
Eyes alight, I turned to the young man.
"Let's set it outside and leave it there!"
Again, we were eight, experimenting! The young man and I are notorious for leaving things outside to see how it separates or molds.
With great awe we set the bowl on the porch. What exciting thing would come of our failure?
Rains came. Snow, storm, and wind kept the young man's town indoors. There was a drift of snow about 3 feet high on the porch. Rarely were the blinds opened to the chilly weathery mix.
Alas! Months later and we remember the bowl of discarded dough!
Investigating, we look in. Disappointment settled: no mold, no separation, simply lots of melted snow covering the rejected dough.
With spatula I scoop it out of the bowl and onto the icy snow beside my porch. No colors, no interesting growth.

And with the monkey bread it suddenly came to me: our failure was using the wrong yeast.
What would come from the next magazine? More recipes to try and work on to perfection? Any pizza dough to make for a second challenge? This time we know - right yeast leads to right dough, which will keep rejects from disappointing by not hosting mold.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

ooooh, yeast is VERY delicate. it can actually die.

i've done this. (but not the "leave it outside for three months" part.) be encouraged.

Unknown said...

PS: no yeast in this one! yum! yum!

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/orange_bread/

PPS: love your blog! :D

Mez said...

bahahaha yes, yeast is tricky
and though breads like this orange bread make me think of fall and crunchy leaves, it seems oddly appropriate to the coming of spring. mayhaps when i investigate i'll send you some