My brother in law got me a copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, a giant tub, and a pizza peel. Yesterday, I came home, whipped up my first batch of dough, and promptly threw the tub down in the corner of the basement (my own personal refrigerator).

Making the dough was easy. But for me, following instructions appears to be a bigger problem.

I attempted the basic dough recipe, just as the book suggests. It took two grabs to get enough dough, but I was able to do the cloaking quickly and efficiently. My ball had absolutely no rise in its 40 minute rising session, which worried me, since it was totally new dough, so I expected something to happen (The book says depending on the age of the dough you may have no rise. It didn’t say which age would do what, I notice now.). I always force a rise in my house by turning on the stove to ward off the chill, but for this first effort, since it had specific instructions about when to start preheating your oven and your stone, I went by their suggestions instead.

Unfortunately, I didn’t allow myself enough access to my broiler tray to add the water for steam. Since it was too late to rearrange, I tossed in a pan of ice cubes hoping for some moderate steam. However, based on the amount of steam that happened just with a few drops of spillage when I tried to fill the tray, in comparison to what little wisps I saw when I put in the ice cubes, that did not look like a successful substitute.

I peeked in at the bread at 20 minutes, and realized the first thing I did wrong. Although I dusted the pizza peel with cornmeal, I did not do the same to the stone. It appears I did not have to worry about my bread not rising during the wait — upon peeking, it was a beautiful round ball, except for one thing. The bottom was stuck to the stone, and you could see the rest of the loaf pulling away.

Once I took the bread out, however, I realized it wasn’t stuck at all. It had, for some reason, rose unevenly, and the cross I had cut onto the top had rolled to the side.

However, once I sliced it, all was forgiven. This was wonderful tasting bread, just like the half-bakeds I would by out of the store and bring home and finish in the oven. Airy, spongy crumb with great pockets, thick, crunchy crust. The toddler demolished a piece all on her own waiting for me to finish her dinner. Coupled with a bowl of vegetable soup, it was pure heaven.

I have things to fix. I was too concerned about the color of my crust and did not cook the bread long enough. By eating it warm, you could tell the inside was a little too wet and still mildly doughy. I put it back in the oven, cut side down, back on the stone, for another 10 minutes, and will let the husband test that out and see if it finished it. That was all I felt comfortable doing without worrying about scorching my open end.

Attempt number 2 will come soon, maybe Wednesday. I want to let the dough spend a little longer down in the basement to see if it really does bring out the sourdough flavor.

I’m on a quest, if you can’t tell, to master my bread making abilities. I love bread, I adore bread, and I want to be able to have fresh bread in my home at all times. I want sandwiches made out of non-flimsy, non-sugary loaves. I want big baguettes to eat with my soup.

I’m getting better with my bread. I’m understanding how dough should feel under my hands when I’ve kneaded it enough. I’m developing ways to make my dough rise in my drafty Minnesotan kitchen (always leave the stove on when you are letting bread rise). I’m toying with no kneads and looking for the right sites, books and single recipes to give me what I need.

I received a few toys that I’ll be talking about soon. But for now, you need to know that one of my biggest quests is for good rye bread. I had half a loaf in the fridge that was my last attempt. It wasn’t light, as it claimed. It was too full of chocolate and molasses. It tasted like a creamy stout in my mouth.

Today, I tried this one. I avoided it two weeks ago for two reasons: I thought all rye breads had molasses in them and since this recipe did not, I assumed it was inauthentic. Also, I hate it when I don’t have a picture to compare my recipe to. But today, I thought I’d give it a try.

The dough was easy to prepare. For once I did not deviate much from the recipe, except I did not have carraway seeds (my last recipe said it was optional) and I threw some ice in the oven for the cooking to steam it a little in the hopes for a better final rise, something I keep reading about in every artesianal bread recipe. I was a little worried about the carraway seeds, as I read now that it is that, and not the actual rye flour, that many people think of when they eat rye bread.

Turns out, they may be right.

Taking it out of the oven, I’m certain everything rose enough, it’s just a very small bread. Since I was trying to make this for Reubens, I really wish I had doubled the recipe.

I gave it the old college try, though, and made a petite little sandwich out of the new rye, and sliced up the rest of the old rye just to get rid of it. Turns out, the old rye was fantastic for a Reuben - the chocolate, nearly sweet flavor of the bread worked beautifully with the tanginess of the sauerkraut and swiss. The new rye, as I had feared, tasted absolutely nothing like rye. It was, however, without doubt the tasting wheat bread I had ever had. If I could ever find a wheat bread with that exact same flavor, crumb and crust, I would be the happiest girl alive. In fact, I may make it again just to use it as a wheat sandwich bread, since every wheat recipe I have tried so far makes much too sweet a bread.

So, there you go. If you want a good wheat bread, try the Emiril recipe without carraway seeds. If you want a rye specifically for an amazing Reuben or Rachel Sandwich, that “light” rye of George’s can’t be beat.

But sadly, I’m still left where I started — no perfect rye bread to be had. I guess I have to keep trying…

Need something to wow guests at a New Years Day brunch? On Christmas day I tested out my first from scratch recipe. Now I’m writing it down, for my personal use, and so you can have something warm and gooey to eat on special occasions, too. this can be time consuming, so make them ahead of time and freeze or stick in the fridge until you want them.

First, use the dough from my runza recipe below. After the final rise, roll it out until it’s about 1/2 inch thick. This will be VERY large.

Let the dough sit for about 10 minutes while you melt 2 sticks of butter, then add 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon to it. Pour this melted concoction onto the sheet of dough and spread evenly with a spatula. Roll your dough up and cut off slices at about two inches thick. I discarded the ends of the roll since they weren’t well filled. This still made about 12 huge rolls.

Put your rolled up rolls in a container to either freeze or leave in the refrigerator until you wish to use them. If you freeze, move to the fridge to defrost the day before. I left mine in the refrigerator for 7 days and they were fine.

Be forewarned — this dough will rise while it is cooling off to a temp that the yeast becomes inactive. Mine ballooned in their container. This is good. Just be sure to leave some room in there for this to happen.

On the day you want to eat, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Let your rolls sit for about 20 minutes before you put them in the oven. Cook for about 20-30 minutes, depending on how many you make at once and how tightly they are packed in a pan.

If you want frosting, this worked well for us:

1 package 1/3rd fat cream cheese (yes, I know, considering all of the butter, why? But that’s what we had)
1/4 cup milk
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix until creamy and spread on rolls after the come out of the oven, while they are still hot. Let them site with frosting for about 15 minutes to let it melt properly.

I have no pictures (photographing the family Christmas breakfast seemed weird), but these looked just like the rolls at, say, Cinnabon.

Enjoy.

Some people think they are like pierogies. Others claim more like a pastie. But if you are from Nebraska, you know EXACTLY what a runza is, and why it isn’t like any other food out there. For a short while, we Nebraska exiles could order them online and have them shipped, frozen, to be reheated and devoured at your convenience. Sadly, the FDA cracked down on the runza trafficking trade, and unless you go back to that flat flat state in the plains, you’re pretty much out of luck.

Now, I’ve tried various runza recipes, and not one of them quite captured the real runza taste (sorry, Grams!).

Then, I managed to find this one. It is exactly and totally perfect.

There seem to be three things necessary to make the perfect runza. One: Lots of pepper. I didn’t realize until I ate one that the pepper is really the signature of the dish. Two: if you can, food process the cabbage. The thinner you can get your cabbage, the better mixed the filling and the more balanced the flavor. Three: the dough. This is absolutely perfect dough for the runza. It’s slightly sweet, something I never really noticed was true about the sandwiches back in Nebraska until I finally got this recipe right. These three tips will make your version taste just like the restaurant version.

Of course, I never make anything just like the recipe, but I stick pretty close in this one. My only modifications are that make much longer sandwiches, rather than the squares she makes, replicating the ones in the restaurant. I also put a slice of American cheese on the dough before I add the filling, since cheese runzas are the best.

Be forewarned. This is a very time extensive recipe. Mostly for the dough rising, which the recipe doesn’t mention by takes about 4 hours total. But I made 12 runzas (two tiny ones for Violet, and 10 bigger ones) which meant we had a meal and a bunch to freeze, so if can be well worth your time.

For vegetarians, I’ve been told a bocca-like ground beef substitute tastes exactly the same by the one friend who has eaten both.