I Made Bread!
First time ever! So proud.
For a while now I’ve wanted to try my hand at baking bread, and yesterday I was just bored enough to give it a try. I used Mark Bittman’s recipe from How To Cook Everything and it was so easy that when I went back today to make bread a second time I didn’t even need to consult the book again.
Just chuck 1 pound of bread flour, 1 teaspoon of rapid rise yeast, and 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt into the food processor, and take it for a spin. (His recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of salt, but Rachel and I thought the first batch of loaves was a little too salty, so I cut back for the second round. I also replaced about a half-cup of the bread flour with whole wheat flour for my baguettes.)
With the food processor running, slowly pour in about 1.5 cups of water until it all comes together in a rough, “shaggy,” ball of very sticky dough. Dump that into a bowl, cover with a towel, and let it sit for 3 hours.
For the baguettes, I divided the dough into four balls, let them rest for 30 minutes, then shaped them (badly) into long snakes. For the big loaf, I just shaped into a rough ovoid. Either way, give them another 2 hour rise (in the case of my ovoid, I actually let it rise for closer to 4 hours).
Preheat the oven to 450, and spray the walls of the oven with water to produce steam while cooking. I just moved the bread directly onto a pizza stone and baked for about 25-30 minutes, giving the walls and the bread another spray of water about 5 minutes in.
(Here’s some advice… if you have a spray bottle of water handy for this purpose, don’t keep it right next to the spray bottle of countertop cleaner. Just sayin’.)
The baguettes were, well, rustic in shape and appearance. They look overcooked, but I think that’s just the whole wheat.
Once they come out, let them sit and cool for 10-20 minutes, and then impress your spouse.
I have to say, I think I’m really going to get into bread-baking.
You love making bread. I love eating bread.
I honestly don’t see how this could get any better for me.
I don’t live at your house, but I love eating bread, too. It seems like the process takes a long time, is it sped up any with a bread maker?
Dude, when you’re in grad school you’ll have time to bake bread all the time. I’m totally jealous.
Dude, when you’re in grad school you’ll have time to bake bread all the time.
This has not been my experience.
Matthew will be doing chores that I have assigned to him during his free time while in grad school. Fortunately, “make bread” will sometimes appear on the list of chores.
Oo, la, la! There is nothing like fresh bread. Yours looks beautiful! Eli used to do food coordinating at the cooperative he lived in at Oberlin. He said the first loaf of many that came out of the oven was called the Zen Loaf, and they would just eat it as soon as as they could. Happy baking!