This week, it was Heather's turn to choose a recipe for THCB. Since I think she has a bit of an evil streak, I wasn't surprised when she immediately suggested we bake bread when I confessed that I never had, mainly due to a fear of the process.
My mother use to spend laborious hours, kneading, rising, punching down he bread and watching it rise again. It seemed excessively time consuming and muscle-strength sapping, especially since I do not own a stand mixer at the moment. Sidebar - if you have one that you would like to donate to me and you live in the Bentonville, AR area, I would gladly bake goods for you on a regular basis to get my hands on one without having to pay an arm and a leg to get the mixer.
Still, she took pity on me and picked a very simple recipe for Crusty bread. She then proceeded to trek all over Bed, Bad and Beyond with me as I picked out a bunch of culinary treasures, including a baking stone that, unfortunately, did not include a pizza peel. Still, I was excited to try my hand at bread baking.
The first thing I noticed is that the recipe is very easy! No endless kneading. No tired muscles at all! More importantly, no need to spend $300 on a standing mixer. Score!
The downside is you still have to wait a few hours for the dough to rise, but such is the nature of the yeast beast. It was well worth the wait.
Other than a lingering burnt odor that I am attributing to the brand new baking stone since my oven is SPOTLESS (for now), the baking process was easy-peasy and my bread came out of the oven looking like it belonged in a proper boulangerie at 5:00am rather than my modest kitchen.
I couldn't resist the urge to cut one of the loaves open when it was still hot and steamy and slather a little butter on it. The resulting slice was like pure heaven. Still a little moist, not dry at all, with a delicious, nutty flavor to the crust, which is amazing considering this was nothing but flour, yeast, salt and water! I am amazed.
The only negative I can report is that the bread was a bit dense, which was lovely the first day, but meant that after the first day, unless the bread was warmed in the microwave or in the toaster, it tasted dry and a little tough. I think next time I will knead the bread a bit more and maybe even let it rise twice instead of once. If I remember correctly, that is what lends a lighter, fluffier feel to the bread. On another note, round loaves do not make more than two good sandwiches, so I think I may attempt to bake a longer loaf next time. I still have half the dough in the fridge. I may also try making pizza out of it. If I do, I'll take pictures and share them.
All in all, I am very pleased with this week's baking. Thanks for the entre into bread baking HB! You rok.
Simple Crusty Bread
Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)
Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal.
1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 loaves.
Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.
