Bread Making Follow-up

Melanie, who originally asked for advice on using her new bread machine, asked another question: What kind of flour do I use?

The answer is simple: All purpose flour is the only kind that crosses my doorway. I know I'm "supposed" to use cake flour for cakes, bread flour for bread, bleached or unbleached because someone says that's what it needs, but I do too much baking. I simply can't manage that kind of inventory. So I keep it simple. The one thing that I do is to be certain that before I make each loaf of bread, I stick a long wooden spoon handle into my flour canister and stir it up well. This beats out any lumps which may be in it, and fluffs the flour up. Some people also buy gluten at the store, which is sold somewhere around the flour, but I skip it.

After you've gotten the hang of the bread machine, try English Muffin Bread on the delayed timer. It will (almost) make you want to get out of bed and have breakfast! In that same post, you'll find recipes for peach jam and lemon curd, both of which are very much worth the tiny amount of effort it takes to make them.

And for Duckie, who asked about chicken fried steak under the broiler, yes, you can do it. Put a very small amount of vegetable oil in the bottom of your broiler pan (don't use the grate which goes on top), coat your steak (and you can use wheat flour for Ben), put it into the oil for a couple of seconds, and flip it. This will moisten the top of the steak so it browns nicely. I use a similar technique for turkey with walnut parmesan sauce, and it works wonderfully!