Hacker News Reader

Comment by Taikonerd | Hacker News Reader

OK, my "most exciting thing" is pretty boring, which says something about me ;-) But I discovered how easy it is to make oven fries: [0]

Easy, customizable, and healthier than regular French fries. I love them!

[0]: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/oven-fries/

View on HN

On that same theme, I've learned the basics of bread making recently, and it's been exciting to me to realize how easily I can make bread that's far better than anything at the grocery store. When I realized that I could 'win' by just using flour, water, and salt, it felt like I had unlocked one of life's cheat codes.

Wait until you come to Germany and buy a bread at a bakery ;)

This annoys me to no end! There _IS_ good bread in the US too.

You just need to ignore the bread aisle of supermarkets!

In the US, good bread must be actively sought out. It is not available everywhere.

> buy a bread at a bakery ;)

Pretty sure every bakery I've been to in the US has had good bread.

In places I’ve lived in the US finding a bakery, outside a supermarket, isn’t a trivial task.

Especially because too many "bakeries" only do sweets and donuts.

That too.

Fair

Ha! I lived in Germany for three years, across the street from a bakery. It was shocking to me that they didn't want to serve coffee 'to go'

German bread is excellent. I prefer my sourdough, but I haven't been to Germany in nearly 20 years, so perhaps my memory is rusty.

I have too - It’s pretty great.

I’m have recently discovered proofing in a cold environment, the kitchen in winter or even the fridge. It looks like nothing has happened, but shape the dough and cook it and you get spectacular oven rise.

This year I learned of Nigel Slater's Lazy Loaf recipe which is basically an Irish soda bread. It's bread, but without the faff of yeast, rising, punching down, proving.

Yes! We discovered this during the pandemic, but usually cut more like classic French fries. Wedges like that recipe are also great. I used to hate making fries, messy and they're always too soggy, but done in the oven they're easy peasy and always great.

I tried making Cream cheese for the first time in the last few weeks. It turned pretty decent (if not a little overwhelming in flavor.) I get a lot of satisfaction out of making these kinds of staple items.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com