Got the "L' out of here (my middle initial). Never really went by that name or initial. It stands for "Lambert", which I never really liked. Especially growing up. Made the school bus ride bad some days, especially after Disney showed that silly cartoon.
Either tonight or tomorrow morning, I'll make some "Olive bread...or something" for our office buffet. Guess I had some kinda Focaccia in mind when I wrote that on the signup sheet. Made some last Sunday that was just a little too thick for my tastes but was okay. The crust was right, but softened from wrapping it...the old dilemma of losing the crunch by wrapping or getting too dry from sitting out. Most stores just let their crusty breads sit out, so that should be okay. I put oregano and basil in the crust and a lot more olive oil than what's right, then topped it with some grated parmesan, fresh-roasted Roma tomatoes, and a speckling of mozzarella. Margherita-oid. But it occured to me to lose the tomatoes and add ripe olives, just a picture in my mind.
The cool thing about a 6 ounce can of ripe olive is that there are 6 ounces of olives in it. A couple of years back, I liked putting sliced ripe olives on nachos and weighed the drained contents of two cans. Precisely six ounces, whole or sliced. Memory says they cost the same, but memory had me eating Pepperidge Farm rye bread yesterday and it was really Cobblestone Mill. I'll check it out on the grocery stop on the way to work in an hour or so. I think I'd like some sliced olices in the dough and a few on top. The drained liquid will certainly go in the dough. It will be a nice wet dough that sticks a bit to the KitchenAid bowl so you have to throw in a little flour to get it all pulled loose. A friend of mine who went to a King Arthur Flour demonstration said they used the term "percent hydration" to say how wet the dough is. You use the amount of water divided by the amount of flour, probably by weight (I'll check it out), and multiply by 100. Kinda tricky, ya know, 'cause water should always weigh the same in ounces as it measures in ounces. The whole English measurement system is based on that concept (and the metric one too, except they have cubic centimeters and grams), so the foundation of Western Civilization is at stake! Two problems though, both centering on the flour.
First, flour doesn't weigh what it measures and it measures differently depending on sifting, humidity, and type of flour. Probably more. Point is, neither weight nor volume is going to be scientific.
Other thing is, as the dough hook gets working, I like to add flour a little at a time and just watch how the dough pulls off the sides and bottom (near the end of kneading) of the bowl. It's done when I've added one tablespoon too much and say to myself, "uh-oh, better quit now". Excess is a good exit point.
Measure?
5:12:56 AM 
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