I am glad when people feel they've come to the right place.
I use "active dry" yeast, but not from the little packets, because I use too much yeast for that to be economical. Instead I buy a little jar of the active dry. Not instant, just active dry. It goes in my rosemary buns and my rye buns and my lussekatter and whatever other bread I mess with.
And no, I do not proof the yeast (I'd be interested to see in what regions people "bloom" and in what regions they "proof"--dialect differences are awesome), I just throw it in there.
The saffron goes in my mortar and pestle with a tablespoon of sugar. Some brands of saffron grind beautifully, falling to bits with the first crunch, and some do not at all. I'm not sure why. But if there are threads here and there in the buns, it won't matter.
Songs vary according to mood that year. The ones I pretty much always sing are Mountain Goats' "This Year," Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," and "In the Bleak Midwinter" because it's the most cheerful Christmas carol I know ("snow is falling, snow on snow, snooooow ooooonnn snooooowwww!"). Other than that, I have been known to sing "Joy to the World" and "NyQuil Driver" and "Now the Green Blade Rises"/"Noel Nouvelet" and "Solar Flare" and various other things. There is a stage where I need a really hard 4/4 rock rhythm to make the punching go right, and it has to be a 4/4 rock rhythm that doesn't require guitar or bass or drums or anything but can work for only one voice and punching. Other than that it can be anything, particularly in the less-punchy bits of the kneading. "Snow is Gone" would work, but I'm a little superstitious about singing that one if we haven't had much snow up until the time I make the lussekatter.
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Date: 2009-12-14 12:22 pm (UTC)I use "active dry" yeast, but not from the little packets, because I use too much yeast for that to be economical. Instead I buy a little jar of the active dry. Not instant, just active dry. It goes in my rosemary buns and my rye buns and my lussekatter and whatever other bread I mess with.
And no, I do not proof the yeast (I'd be interested to see in what regions people "bloom" and in what regions they "proof"--dialect differences are awesome), I just throw it in there.
The saffron goes in my mortar and pestle with a tablespoon of sugar. Some brands of saffron grind beautifully, falling to bits with the first crunch, and some do not at all. I'm not sure why. But if there are threads here and there in the buns, it won't matter.
Songs vary according to mood that year. The ones I pretty much always sing are Mountain Goats' "This Year," Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," and "In the Bleak Midwinter" because it's the most cheerful Christmas carol I know ("snow is falling, snow on snow, snooooow ooooonnn snooooowwww!"). Other than that, I have been known to sing "Joy to the World" and "NyQuil Driver" and "Now the Green Blade Rises"/"Noel Nouvelet" and "Solar Flare" and various other things. There is a stage where I need a really hard 4/4 rock rhythm to make the punching go right, and it has to be a 4/4 rock rhythm that doesn't require guitar or bass or drums or anything but can work for only one voice and punching. Other than that it can be anything, particularly in the less-punchy bits of the kneading. "Snow is Gone" would work, but I'm a little superstitious about singing that one if we haven't had much snow up until the time I make the lussekatter.