Comments on: Daily bread

By: mandarine

mandarine — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:07:32 +0000

litlove: there are so many steps one might go wrong I wonder how people ever managed to invent bread in the first place! The only explanation is that they were hungry enough to eat all their failed attempts.

Tai: it looks French and it tastes French too. Maybe it is the essence of Frenchness in French bread that makes the French speak French. Just as the essence of Englishness in Weetabix makes the weetabivores speak English.

By: Tai

Tai — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:48:43 +0000

That nice bread looks so … French. If I tried to make bread I fear it would look like Sunset Boulevard. We are what we eat. We cook what we are.

By: litlove

litlove — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:15:47 +0000

Now that looks glorious! I’ve only made bread once and it was sort of ok. I will now read back through everyone’s comments to see where I went wrong!

By: mandarine

mandarine — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:14:51 +0000

Indeed, it has to wait (and it should not wait on a flat surface otherwise the bottom of the loaf will be wet from its own steam).
Thanks for the book advice. I would still try to make the sticky buns: the waistline issue can be circumvented by distributing it among a few appropriately invited friends.

By: healingmagichands

healingmagichands — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:04:13 +0000

Just one note: Even though you are tempted to cut the loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven, it is very important to wait about 15 minutes before you do that. The bread is still cooking inside the crust after it emerges, and if you cut into it too soon the hot slices will be great, but the rest of the loaf not as good. We learned this from reading “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart. By the way, this is an EXCELLENT book for anyone who wishes to learn how to make really wonderful breads. Do NOT, I repeat, NOT, EVER make the sticky buns in that book or you will be forced to eat every single one of them within a couple of hours which is highly detrimental to your waistline.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:30:25 +0000

YUM!!!

By: mandarine

mandarine — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:47:44 +0000

Thanks for the link. If you can read some French, I warmly recommend books by HervÃ© This: this guy is revolutionizing cuisine by just applying scientific method to cooking practices and recipes.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:57:30 +0000

Yum! Reading your recipe reminds me of my favourite recipe website “Cooking for Engineers” (which logically enough is at http://www.cookingforengineers.com/). It makes much more sense to me!

It also has my favourite pancake recipe.
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/47/Basic-Pancakes

Doug

By: mandarine

mandarine — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:06:06 +0000

Apparently, my type 65 would be your Mehltype 550.

By: mandarine

mandarine — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:04:24 +0000

The problem is that I am never sure it’s not a one-off. I am still trying to stabilize the result, and this one might be serendipitous. Anyway, here is how I did it:
-500 g white flower (make it type 65)
-yeast (I used supermarket dehydrated yeast)
-2 tea spoons salt
-added warm water until the dough is just sticky

Kneaded until it was elastic and smooth and not so sticky (approx. 15 min)

I left it to rise for one hour (room temperature was 18 Â°C), then kneaded again. I am not sure I should do this, in fact. Shaped into a ball, then left to rise for another hour (each time, under a damp cloth).

Cut marks on the surface with a very sharp knife (or a razor blade) (wet).

Prepared the oven (250 Â°C) with a bowl of water, so that internal air would be saturated. Placed the bread in the oven and sprinkled a little water on it and on the walls of the oven.

Kept an eye on it while it baked. It was ready after a little less than half an hour. Knocking on the back of the bread should produce a hollow sound.