she-bot-uh, part one million.

i realize i talk about bread baking pretty often on this blog. it's personal without delving too much into my mind. probably you are all sick of hearing about bread. but you should really come over and try some.
last night, for whoever is amazingly still interested in bread after all these posts, i made the best batch of ciabatta ever.
it started out as the worst looking batch of ciabatta ever. no joke.
it was like SOUP. every time i had to fold it, it was more like my hands were instantly encompassed with goop. like, extreme goop of soupy glutenous matter. by the fourth folding it was almost as solid as the usual batch before folding commences.
it had a few days in the fridge. it rose, but not really as much as usual. new fridge too, and it was all in one bowl instead of two [figured goop on one was enough to clean up].
i took it out yesterday, and there were bubbles covering most of the top of the dough. they literally looked like hard-boiled eggs floating in a sea of... gluten soup. mmm, egg-drop gluten soup!
but upon beginning to form it into loaves, it was the lightest, fluffiest dough i've ever felt. ???
it sat out on the counter longer than usual, because i was busy doing other things.
i baked it on my new pizza stone.
the loaves were funny shapes because i had to throw the dough onto the stone by hand [i have no bread peel. do you pity me enough to get me one? just kidding.. but seriously]. so there are a few squiggly loaves.
but shoot dang. that stuff was good. it was sooooo light, with good bubbles inside and a nice but not extremely chewy crust on the outside. it was even good today. it might even be good TOMORROW still.

just goes to show you, to be aesop for the moment, that things are not as they first appear. even when they look grim. and dismal. and not full of vim. and chances are slim. and everything's dim. and nothing's chim-chiminey..

they just might turn out to be better than you ever, ever, ever dreamed.

i'm hoping that ciabatta was a picture of my life.
oui, s'il vous plâit?
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