i’m so excited to share my first new hobby of the new year- bread making! i’ve only been baking lovely loaves for about a week now, but i’m hooked. i was home for the holidays and was delighted to wake up one morning to the smell of fresh baked bread. i had no idea my mom made bread (it’s a new hobby for her too) and i was so impressed. i had just assumed that bread was really hard to make without a bread maker. as it turns out, its really simple, it just takes some time. like, hours of time. but it’s wintertime, and the holidays are over, and you deserve a couple hours of uninterrupted experimentation in your kitchen. would i be going so far to say that bread making is therapeutic? yes, i sure would. there’s something very soothing about the process. the ingredients are so simple, so the real magic comes from your hands. as if that wasn’t enough, bread is also delicious and is best friends with cheese.
roll up your sleeves, follow these steps, and don’t get too hung up on the end result. flour, salt and yeast are cheap. you can try again tomorrow if your bread doesn’t make you jump for joy. my first batch of bread was better than the second, but i’m almost certain that, because i know what i would change next time, my third batch is going to be the best yet. if you find something that works, by all means, let us know!
this is how i made 4 small baguettes. there are probably a ton of ways to do this, but this is the recipe that my darling mother gave me, so let’s go with this for now.
you need:
4 or 5 cups unbleached white flour ( i went with about 4 1/2 cups)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 egg, beaten + mixed with 1 T cold water
2 cups water
to do
step 1: in a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. stir. set aside for 10 minutes.
step 2: combine flour + salt. add yeast mixture and stir in remaining 1 1/2 cup water. mix dough until sticky enough to knead for 6- 10 minutes; dough should feel sticky + smooth. put the dough in a bowl, cover with damp towel, let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 1 hour.
step 3: punch dough down + divide into 4 pieces. roll each into a ball and shape into a baguette. transfer loaves to lightly greased baking sheet and let rise until doubled.
step 4: preheat oven to 450 degrees. brush baguettes with egg-water mixture. score the loaves diagonally.
step 5: pour 2 cups of hot water into a pan + place in the preheated oven next to the baguettes. bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temp to 400 degrees and bake for 5-10 minutes more, until golden brown.
you’re done! you’ve baked bread! you can do anything now!
how did it go? did you burn yourself on the pan in excitement and then run to the fridge for milk because you heard it helps burns and in all that pandemonium you forgot the milk was spoiled and poured it on yourself anyway? be careful out there my little bakers. the oven is hot, as it turns out. and spoiled milk is just the worst.
xo
xoxoxo 