One kind of fun (in the "let's have an adventure!" line of fun) thing about living here is that when the wind shows up, we often lose our power. Last fall, we had what was apparently a pretty unusual windstorm and lost power for over a day, but usually it's just for a few hours.
The other night, we lost our power for just a few hours. Really, no big deal. We know enough now to fill up all the big pots and pitchers as soon as the wind picks up (having an electric well means no power = no water!), and we know where the candles and flashlights are, so no big deal. We even got to eat hot food anyway, since this time we had a grill, so my husband just cooked us up some burgers and hotdogs.
It was just a fun night, spent hanging out together in the candlelight.
Except... that when the power went out I had just finished kneading a batch of bread dough, and had set it aside to rise. I was hopeful that perhaps our power would be back on in time to bake it in the oven, but no such luck.
But as always, new ideas spring from necessity.
Ok, so cooking bread over an open flame is probably not what you'd call a new idea... but it was a new one around here. I've made lots of things on a grill, including some bread-like items like pizza. And I've cooked biscuits and things over a campfire, but always in a dutch oven. I've never actually tried to "bake" a loaf of bread over a fire, or on a grill, but I've got a fun husband who always likes to try new things, and otherwise I'd just have to toss it all anyway, so we decided to give it a shot.
We quickly ran into a problem: when I'd set it to rise, I'd put it in a preheated oven. And while I did pull it out to punch it down and let it re-rise, I'd left it in that oven the whole time I was waiting for the power to come back on.
I think it got too hot, for too long, even in a turned-off oven, and the yeast died. Because it sure didn't rise again after that first time.
Honestly, I wanted to toss it in the trash at that point. But my husband pointed out that the grill was still nice and hot, and that we had nothing to lose, so we (he) went for it.
After half an hour on the grill, it smelled incredible. The scent of fresh-baked bread, but also kind of a smoky, roasted smell. Heavenly.
Unfortunately, that was the only good part. It looked ridiculous, like an enormous chicken breast (complete with grill marks!). And it didn't get even a little bit done inside, so it was still really doughy. A total failure.
But we are super interested in trying again, next time perhaps with not-over-risen-dead-yeast dough! I'll let you know how it goes.
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