BREAD baking

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm sure your bread was delicious! Maybe it needed a few more minutes baking to brown it more?- was it done enough in the middle?
I have both underbaked and overbaked my breads. Two loaves I made a few days ago were a bit overdone and really too crunchy and dark.....I usually only take pictures of the ones that came out best! but the more bread I bake the more of them come out well- just like with anything.
I learn a little something every time i make bread- that's part of the fun.

Hey, your stovetop looks a lot cleaner than mine!

[sweetpotatopie]

.....I usually only take pictures of the ones that came out best!

haha... sadly, me too...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

haha... sadly, me too...

I had to DUMP the first two batches of bread I made in the GARBAGE- and no WAY I would have photographed them! You just get slowly a little better the more you make- hang in there, you're doing great! Bread does not have to be perfect to be appreciated and a great accomplishment.

[Photoflygirl]

I've only made ciabatta bread and some bread in our bread machine, which I find far too dense. I am inspired to buy this book and try some bread baking. I love your loaves, Lisa! They are so pretty.

[deedolce]

Those are GORGEOUS loaves, Lisa!
I'm getting so lazy. I just scoop out some dough, lump it on parchment paper, wait the 20 minutes, and pop it in the oven! I need to work on presentation...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thank you guys for the compliments!

I guess I have gotten the hang of the presentation thing so that now that part only takes about three minutes before putting the two loaves in the oven. I either dust with flour and then slash, or else I paint with cornstarch/water glaze, sprinkle with seeds and then slash. Goes pretty quickly. You can make up a little jar of the watery cornstarch glaze and keep it in the fridge to use for about 3 weeks. For seeds, I use white sesame, black sesame, or poppy seed. It's fun to try different slash patterns, too. Sometimes we just like the flour dusting with no seeds at all.
I have found that baking them in the pre-heated cast iron pots creates perfect crusts every time without any steam pans or water spraying, etc. Using parchment to move the loaves and lower them into the pots makes life way easier.

[tulip]

I bought some black sesame seeds from a local South Asian store. I'm going to try a loaf in the dutch oven this weekend. Pics, if they're worthy, will be forthcoming.

[shootingstar]

Bread surely tastes as lovely as it looks. It looks so ..arty, bleeckerstgirl.