BREAD baking

[sgtiger]

I finally got around to baking a a few loaves while Dh was home. (I've only had the book for a month or so.) It really is fool-proof. I'm pretty baking-challenged and the loaves I baked turned out great. I don't have a baking stone (yet) so I placed a cookie sheet on top of my cast iron griddle and that worked out well to keep the temp stable enough to bake. I made a dip for my bread by heating up some EVOO on med. low and adding sliced garlic. Very tasty. I might trying adding some herbs next time, like rosemary, and a splash of balsamic vinegar after the oil cools. Of course, bread dipped in a good quality olive oil by itself it delicious. My "adopted" Italian grandfather taught me that.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

sgtiger- that is so cool! I want a picture next time!

I have been enjoying making bread so much that I now keep like two different batches of dough 'ripening' in the fridge at any given time, plus some sourdough starter.

My loaves always seem to be rather small, but DH loves them anyway and they taste so good! So I just solve the issue by baking two at a time.

Today I pulled out a portion of my semolina dough, and also the basic white dough. I made a plain white boule (still the favorite) and a semolina loaf. I experimented with the semolina- it traditionally is topped with sesame seeds, but this time I used black sesame seeds and I envisioned that after slashing it and it puffing up a bit in the oven, that it might look like tiger stripes, especially since the semolina flour is rather golden colored. As you can see it did indeed turn out very tiger-looking! So I'm naming that variation my "tiger semolina".




Though small, the two loaves were very lovely in both taste and texture.
I may experiment with giving them a shorter resting time before baking, to see if that increases the 'oven spring'.

[Tuckervill]

Lovely. I'm okay with the smaller loafs, just enough for a couple-three people. Nothing like the fresh bread!

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Today i baked four small loaves of bread. Tonight we are going to a little potluck dinner with friends, and I'll bring two loaves with me to share. That leaves another two for home eating.

I made one "tiger semolina" (with the black sesame seed stripes), two olive/sundriedtomato/onion loaves, and one plain white boule with sesame seeds on top, slashed in a sun pattern. I'll take one olive loaf and the semolina to the potluck tonight.



I really really like the bread from the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day book. Not only is it the best tasting bread I've ever had, but it takes little time to prepare as well.

[Biciclista]

your bread loaves are works of art! they are truly lovely. Do you get the stripes just from cutting slits in the bread before it rises?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

your bread loaves are works of art! they are truly lovely. Do you get the stripes just from cutting slits in the bread before it rises?

Hey thanks, Mimi!

After the loaf is formed, it's allowed to 'rest' for 40 minutes and it puffs up part way. Then you either: dust with flour and slash, or paint with cornstarch wash and sprinkle with seeds and slash....then they go in the hot oven and will rise and expand a bit more while baking. (that's called 'oven spring') The slashes are then seen as bare spots with no flour dusting or seeds.
I want to do some onion garlic bread topped with poppy seeds soon too.

[Tuckervill]

I turned a good friend on to this book and they tried the pita recipe and LOVED it.

Karen