Jan. 28: Baking Bread

Today I was invited to learn to bake fresh homemade bread from a co-worker of J. I few months ago we dog sat for his coworker, and she paid us with a loaf of her fresh bread. Needless to say, it was delicious. Today she was teaching her tricks of bread making to another friend; I gladly joined the party. This was our finished product, minus the few half loaves we taste tested.

Her recipes came from the book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois. Ironic note: we spent 6 hours from start to finish, but in that time we also enjoyed lunch, several games of Bananagrams, and a short walk. Hey, the breads got to rise and bake.

We made three types of bread, white bread, rye bread, and a corn bread. Here is a sample of the tricks I learned about bread baking.

• Use sharp knife to cut slashes in bread dough to make designs and release moisture as it bakes.
• Pre-heat oven with baking stone and broiler pan in it.
• After bread is put in oven, add a cup of water to the broiler pan and close oven door immediately, the bread sort of steam bakes.
• When taking bread out of the oven, give the bottom a thump, if it makes a sort of hollow noise, it is done.

All three types turned out wonderful. Bread making was much easier than I imagined, and while the rising time takes several hours and the baking about a half hour, the actual hands on time was minimal. I can't wait to try it again at home.