sunday bready sunday
i’m getting back in the habit of baking bread on sundays. i think i stopped doing it regularly when i moved into my new place with my tiny oven that is about 50 degrees off depending on the temperature i set. a few weeks ago i decided to get the heck over it and work with the oven until we developed a happy bread baking relationship. growing up with the sounds and smells of fresh bread baking constantly made a snob out of me. (okay, lots of things made a snob out of me.) and a delicious french baguette with a crunchy crust is a favorite indulgence. (yes, i like sour dough too, mike, and i’ll get back to work on that soon…) so began my journey to get the baguettes back in the rotation…
it’s one of the the most satisfying processes and tastes i can think of. its basic, time consuming and so simple yet complex. the only ingredients are yeast (holy yummy smell), water, pinch each of sugar and salt and flour. and time. yet in the end, its flavorful and texture rich. it’s a great escape.
and because its so important to me and lately, to my sanity and happiness, i figured i’d share my experience so yesterday i took a few photos throughout the process….at present, i use julia’s basic recipe. it’s a classic and i can see no reason to stray. it has been very good to me.
yeast is one of the most fabulous smells EVER. seriously, ever. when i start to get whiffs of it coming to life, i get so excited for what’s to come. nerdy, but true.
tepid water (100-110 degrees) and yeast mixed with some food (sugar) wakes everything up. if it doesn’t, time to go buy some new yeast. when it doubles in size like that (above), you’re good to go.
when i started out, my dad told me i had to learn to make bread by hand first, then i could learn to depend on the cuisinart or stand mixer. that was a long time ago though and i have long since earned my cuisinart (thanks, dad!). in it, a few cups of flour and a pinch of salt.
after the yeast has been proofed (its alive!), add some cold water. turn on the cuisinart and slowly pour the liquid in. this is the machine kneading and it goes until the dough forms into a ball and rotates about 10 times, adding drips of water or tbs of flour as needed.
then you let it rest for 5 min before turning it on again for 30 more spins. after the machine kneading is done, it rests some more on the counter top.
baking bread requires patience. something i normally don’t have much of, but in the kitchen, i do. its my therapy.
after it rests for a few min, you begin the first hand kneading. this process just spreads the yeast around and jolts it awake. its also when you know if the dough is going to be any good or not. if not, you haven’t wasted too much time and can still start over. this particular batch was pretty decent. it was smooth and not sticky unless i gave it a pinch. i put it in a bowl for the first rising.
this is the dough after the first rising. i give it a wake up with a very short and specific kneading, then put it back in the bowl and cover it for rising numero due where it will be bursting out of the bowl after a few hours.
the risings are a good time for me to get errands and workouts done. got my long run out of the way during the second rising yesterday and came home to the dough literally pushing the top off. awesome.
my oven is small and has room for three small baguettes. so i weigh the dough, and evenly divide it before forming the loaves.
i cover the two that are resting with a towel so they don’t form any skin. it takes a few minutes of kneading to redistribute the good stuff (yeast!) as i’m forming loaves on my lightly floured surface.
three loaves ready for a third and final rising. i cover them with another towel and get to work negotiating with my oven to heat to the right temp and hopefully convince it to bake my bread all perfectly golden brown and such.
with my old standard size oven, i could fit enough whole stones in to cover the rack. usually 8-9. this little guy, well this little guy is a whole other story altogether. it fits four stones. four. that’s simply not enough. its unacceptable. so one day, i set to work cracking stones to make my baking surface big enough for my needs. i needed four stones to break at the right spot to give me a piece that was about two thirds the size of a stone. i only wasted 3 tiles! and one of the wasted tiles actually turned out to give me the final small corner piece i needed to bring the other pieces all together.
you really should have seen me on the kitchen floor with a hammer and a skewer.
i keep them in the pictured tray on top of my fridge when i’m not using them.
its not pretty, but it does the trick!
the tray is for steam. right when i put the unbaked loaves in, i squeeze a turkey baster full of water into the tray and quickly close the oven door. it produces steam that helps give the loaves the beautiful, crispy crust on the outside. sometimes you can just use the bottom of the oven, but it puts the fire right out in mine. with a bigger oven, you can steam it up a few minutes before putting your bread in but with my little guy, it just lets all the steam out, so i do it all at the same time.
and of course, my trusty thermometer. it takes awhile to get that bad boy up to 450 and i have to set my oven to over 500 degrees. i do this early on in the last rising in case i need to make temperature adjustments, which i usually do. but, by the time the loaves are ready, usually ole bessy is too.
the goal is to have pinched the dough enough that they don’t tear apart like that during rising, but sometimes it doesn’t work out so well. not the end of the world though.
after carefully rolling the loaves onto the peel, i make slits int he dough to allow for expansion in the oven. then i slide them in and wait for my nose to start smiling.
after about 20 minutes, i turn the oven down slightly and give it another 10 or so.
then i take its temp to ensure its done inside before taking them all out to cool.
have you ever heard bread cool? it crackles so loud! and smells so good. i can hear it cooling in the kitchen from my living room. then my mouth starts watering.
eventually i break off about a third of a loaf into small pieces, butter it and over indulge.
ohmygoodness its so good. and so satisfying. everyone should do this. it saves me so much in therapy.
