gemini://gemini.bvnf.space/blog/009

It's Saturday, and it's been really sunny here for the last few days. While waiting for llvm to compile (want to use Asan to track down a bug in neomutt), I decided to finally make some bread. I bought the flour and yeast about 6 weeks ago, but haven't got around to it until now.

As a student, I don't have any decent kitchen equipment, but despite that it went ok.

I started by mixing some white bread flour in the largest bowl I had - a saucepan. I don't have a set of weighing scales or a measuring jug so I estimated a bit less than 500g of flour by using the crude volume scale on the side of the saucepan, and added salt and a whole packet of instant yeast (probably too much). Then I added some oil and mixed in water until it felt like enough. I think I added about two or three mugs' worth of water.

I remembered reading somewhere that it works just as well and is a bit less messy if you mix with a spoon, so I did and it worked fine. I kept adding a bit more water until it formed more of a clump.

To knead it, I put some flour on a baking tray because I didn't want to get the frankly dirty worktop even more messy - my housemates probably wouldn't appreciate it either. However, I now see why everyone usually kneads on a worktop, because the tray wouldn't stay still and made it quite difficult.

I also had to take off my bracelets which got stuck in the dough. I kept adding flour to the sticky bits as the dough came together and finally it formed a nice ball.

Now I cleaned the saucepan from earlier, and oiled it - after a minute of trying to rotate the pan around to get the oil to cover it, I just rubbed it around with my fingers. Much easier. Now the dough was placed into the pan with a cloth over the top, and I left it in the kitchen because I think it's warm enough in there.

By this point the llvm build had finished, and didn't achieve what I wanted (*sigh*). I poked around a lot more, and checked on the dough after an hour, then folded it and left it again. After another hour I put it in the oven.

I wasn't sure how long it should be in the oven for, given the size of my dough, but I checked it after 20 minutes and then left it for another 5. It looked brown enough and sounded good when I tapped the top, so took it out. I think I might have taken it out too early though, because as I cut further into it there are some small bits which are a bit wet still, but I'm too hungry to leave it.

This was fun! I need to get some better equipment, and at least a paper/cloth bag to store it in, but most importantly, the kitchen smells amazing now :)