By AUSTINEPICUREAN
Bread. Like everyone else, I need more of it.
I remember when I was young, I was informed by Mom that if I ate the crusts of my bread it would put curls in my hair. She would point to my older cousin and relate to me how well it worked for him. My cousin had a rich head of wavy hair, that my Mother used to like to flaunt in front of me just to get me to eat the crust on my sandwiches.
Well it didn’t put a curl on my head. In fact, not only did it not provide me with more spring in my locks, I have become more follicular-ly challenged over the years. We won’t talk about what happened to my cousin’s fabulous coif (but between you and I, it ain’t all there anymore either, and considerably less than mine). Lies, all lies.
Coming back to the present, and all bitterness aside, I have recently rekindled my affinity for bread. Especially the crunchy goodness of the crust contrasting to the rich interior of the crumb. On it’s own, with a hunk of cheese, or simply with a thin spread of really good butter, there is nothing that can replace a good loaf in the kitchen and in the belly.
I need to give credit, where credit is due. Recently my friend Natanya of Fete and Feast posted about her recent and renewed exploits in the baking world. In her original post on the subject (which can be found here), she credits her success to a book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois called “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day“. While I am normally skeptical of being able to do anything ‘in Five Minutes’, her composition along with the knowledge that Natanya does not embellish, compelled me to re-enter the world of baking and to give the book a read.
So, after gaining some confidence from Fete and Feast, I dove in to my first foray of the world of yeast for many a year. Historically, I have had a lot of trouble baking bread. Most, if not all of my endeavors ended in wonderfully shaped bricks and stops for various doors. Pizza has been a decent success for me in the past, so that is where I started, dusting off my favorite deep-dish pizza pan and creating a delicious treat for the family one night (another tidbit I will blog in the future). Having had a modicum of success, I decided to try the next step.
After a little digging (and the recent purchase of a Kindle, to which I find myself somewhat addicted), I found Jeff and Zoe’s first book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking” available for download. From the beginning it was intriguing, and I found a bit more confidence in my bread making skills by just reading the first few chapters. And, I would suggest that reading the first five chapters is essential in the success of the recipes that you may try. From there, it is all downhill as all of the recipes are built upon the foundation of the recipe for Boule.
My first loaf was a success. An amazing turn-around from previous attempts, and I think the Wife actually used “Amazing” as a description of my efforts. Although, I have to say that the success of the first loaf is much less an accolade to my baking skills than it is to Jeff and Zoe’s writing/baking/teaching skills. Following their direction (which is simple by the way), I was able to make my first tasty and crunchy loaf of bread after MANY failed attempts. Although for the past couple of weeks I have not followed their suggestion of using a pizza stone on which to bake the bread, I have had wonderful success using simply a cookie tray lined with a silicon mat. Today I plan to pick up a baking stone to see how that pushes the envelope.
My First re-Attempt at Bread
No more will my bread be littered with substances such as “Partially Hydrolyzed” anything, high fructose corn syrup, diglycerides, ethoxylated mono – something-or-other, nor anything with the word ’stearoyl’ in it (I am actually afraid to look that one up). It will be of flour, water, salt, yeast and any other healthy ingredient that will add flavor to the mix and not just something I cannot pronounce.
Cheers!
