Week 3 Part II

While my goal for 2011 is related to trying the desserts in our family cookbook, the dessert baking has inspired other baking. This week I made two loaves of bread. I was striving for something very similar to the Artisan bread I love to purchase at the local grocery store.

My first loaf was a no-knead loaf made with all bleached flour and 1/4 cup of lager beer as part of the ingredients. It was a tasty loaf but did not rise much. A day later my newest kitchen purchase arrived and I was able to make another no-knead loaf.

This recipe was found at Breadtopia and has the most unusual thing about the dough is the 18 hour standing time.

I made the whole wheat recipe and replaced 1/4 cup of the water with lager beer, and set it to rest for the required 18 hours. The next day, I completed the loaf following the directions on the Breadtopia website. It is sticky and I really appreciated my plastic baker's scrapper. After a quick shaping the dough gets another 90 minute rest.

After a rest, the dough is carefully dropped into the preheated baker. (Watch the video at Breadtopia) This clay baker works at 500°. Wow that is hot, but it produced that lovely hard crust and soft interior that I so love about the Artisan bread at the grocery store.

I have determined that whole wheat bread baking is an art unto itself, and I plan to stick to the all-purpose flour loaves for a while in an effort to perfect them. I grew up on white bread and a desire to make bread can only come from a desire to connect to my mom—therefore, white bread it shall be, for now.