Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Beautiful Bread!

It's been about 8 months since the last time I baked any bread. My past trials had certainly been edible, but I was struggling with it not rising enough, and not developing the right crust or crumb. Well, the stars must have aligned last night, because I finally baked my first truly good loaf!



The recipe and the yeast were the same, but I used actual bread flour and had the benefit of a new mixer and a newer, more accurate oven. Right from the beginning, it rose more in the bowl than it ever had before, and just kept rising in the oven. When I took it out I could tell the crust was just right, and it even "sang" as it cooled.



This morning I couldn't help myself but break into it. It was a delicious start to the day! I think I may need to see about finding a bulk supply of flour, because I'm gonna want to have fresh bread everyday now!

4 comments:

Janine said...

It looks absolutely delicious. You'll have to give me your recipe. I've been struggling with bread all winter.

Gardeness said...

We used the "master recipe" from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a day. The name is a bit misleading, but the recipe involves no kneading, and makes a batch of dough that you can store in the fridge and pull four loaves of bread from. You can check out their website and blog at www.artisanbreadinfive.com. They post a lot of their recipes on there as well, so you can try before you buy :-)

Maureen said...

Ditto on Janine's request for the recipe. Mine is ok, the crust is nice and chewy but the bread itself just seems more dense than I 'd like it to be.....I want those nice big holes you have in yours!

Gardener said...

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is an amazing book and really simple to follow.

They were kind enough to post the master recipe in their article for Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx