Breadmakers

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

As I also posted in my personal blog today:

I made another couple of loaves of white crusty boule bread from the Artisan Bread book basic dough recipe today. Since they were a nice petite 8" round size, I made two at once and placed them side by side to rest/rise and bake together.
They wound up 'kissing' each other in the middle- it was so sweet! My husband and I agreed that they represented us rather accurately. So romantic!
We ate one boule this afternoon in ham/cheese/pickle/tomato sandwiches (plus snacking on the irresistible heels later), and we'll eat the other one tomorrow. Now I know I can get three of this ideal size round boules from each basic dough batch (made with 6 cups flour). Not too big, not too small.

As the book said, when the dough ages a few days in the fridge before shaping and baking, it has a nicer flavor, nicer crust, and is more chewy/stretchy. This proved true today as these boules were made from 5 day old dough and they really tasted great, with perfect texture. I've started a new dough batch in the fridge.

My new peel and the parchment paper make handling and transferring the dough much easier than before. I think I ham finally getting the hang of it, though I don't really feel confident yet at all- I am still getting uneven results sometimes.

I tried making some baking powder type bread the other day (no yeast) just for fun, and I think my husband and I have become spoiled by this artisan chewy crunchy yeasty bread. The old baking powder bread I used to like ok just didn't float our boats this time.

I have ordered a few interesting additional bread baking goodies to try out...some sourdough starter, some 'white' whole wheat flour from King Arthur Flours, a lame for slashing the loaves, and I want to try some semolina/durham flour. I also need to get some black sesame seeds, poppy seed, sun-dried tomatoes, nuts, fresh rosemary, and olives to begin experimenting with other interesting breads.