Complicated Recipes

So the thing about "The Book Lover's Cookbook" is that on some level it does not matter if it is terrible as a cookbook-- this is one of the ones that I'm not getting rid of whether or not the food is actually good, because I got it because it's entertaining. It's got all these passages from various stories to do with food, which it then accompanies with recipes. And while the only thing I'm making at the moment is a fairly basic bread, notable primarily because it makes up very quickly and because it calls for being braided, I do have to note that the recipes are written for actual humans to use them. I discovered in the process of this that I am not *remotely* patient with cookbooks that involve complex instructions even if they are baking-- I mean, we knew I was impatient with cookbooks that are like that for the stove, just look at the ones I keep giving to benign_cremator  because I'm never going to make terrine, but I was going "I have a free afternoon today and a free day tomorrow; I can make one of the more complex bread recipes in Bread Alone" and then discovered that no, I can't, because Bread Alone is very specific about the type of flour you want, and while I am in fact perfectly capable of ignoring "You must use 20% BRAN FLOUR" and just using AP like a normal human being (or buying a bag of bread flour if it really wants to kick up a fuss), ignoring all that and using AP like a normal human being while *also* making a loaf of bread that calls for "it takes the entire day to make but you have to do stuff to it every two hours so you can't just let it sit there and rise" is... a bit much.

I am finding that even in baking, I really don't want the recipe to involve a crazy number of steps. I'm more patient with it in baking. I may yet try Bread Alone-- but then again, I might not, considering I found few recipes in there that I actually want to try and it looks very fussy, as it begins with a dissertation on types of flour that is *far* more specific than "whole wheat, bread, AP, pastry" and involves knowing specific brands so you know what type of wheat it was ground from. (To be clear, I'm not necessarily opposed to that in a cookbook, but I'd rather see it Alton Brown style where it's clear that this is a thing you can do if you want to put in the effort but if you don't that is in fact okay and your food will probably still turn out fine.)

Also, fussy food just tends to be generally less *appealing*-- I'm using "would I want to purchase a loaf of this from When Pigs Fly" as the metric, and so few of the Bread Alone recipes actually qualify on that count. It's all fruit or onion or caraway; apparently nobody makes cheese and herb bread anymore.

Anyway, the recipes in "The Book Lover's Cookbook" read like they were written for *actual humans* to use. They're simple and straightforward. On the other hand, there wasn't all that much flavor or texture to that loaf of bread-- which in retrospect makes sense, it uses a *weird* mixing method involving dumping the water and butter in, then all the dry ingredients, then mash together with a fork. It comes together surprisingly well but it is weird, and I think maybe more dependent on vigorous kneading for texture than the breads I'm used to making, which I don't usually do that much of partially because of physical strength and partially because the breads I usually make... don't really need it. Also it had a very short rise time; I gave it a bit longer than suggested on both rises and did not get much rise or flavor.

It did have a good description of how to braid bread and really braided bread is so simple and so pretty that I should make it more often. (I wonder about trying to braid the baguette recipes?)

(On a completely unrelated note: The Magnus Archives is wonderful; The Magnus Archives is also a FONT OF NIGHTMARES and you SHOULD NOT BINGE LISTEN TO IT. This PSA brought to you by nothing whatsoever.)