During my detox, I woke up from a dream that entirely consisted of bread.
I was in my kitchen and a lovely two pound boule was set before me. Taking my trusty bread knife, I sliced the entire loaf into several thick pieces then set them carefully in my preheated oven. As they toasted to a slight brown, I unwrapped the gold package of butter and mixed it with chives, dill, and pepper. I removed the slices from the oven, now warm enough to melt butter and put them on a large plate. Then, I used both hands to shove the entire sliced up loaf in my mouth. Like a cartoon comic, crumbs flew from my mouth and scattered everywhere and I lapped them up.
It doesn’t surprise me I dreamed about bread. I was on day 17 of 18 on my detox which has kept me far from anything with gluten and if you read my twitter, I really missed bread the most (I’m sorry about the fact I can’t shut up about it.)
Enter my first trip to France. At 18, after high-tailing it out of high school a semester early, my best friend, her mother, and I hopped a plane to Europe to spend a month. I had my first French croissants and baguettes and knew I could never love American bread from the store again. In the mountains of Colorado, I searched for baguettes that were even remotely close and fell short. I thought and scoured but was too intimidated to try making a baguette.
Here I am, a longer time than I wished away from France and I’m still obsessed with finding delicious bread. There are bakeries I’ve purchased from, but nothing really compares. On my birthday in 2008, alone and away from my family, I decided to take the plunge and make my first loaf of bread all by myself:
The results were phenomenal. I made a fantastic BLT with it and though I was in and out of my affair with homemade bread for a few months, I’ve entered a union with it wholeheartedly. I would rather eat no bread than store bought bread.
I’m lucky though. While making a loaf a few weeks back with a friend, I noticed her looking cluelessly at the raw dough. I instructed her to, “knead it.” She grabbed an end and punched it a little. I took it over, showed her a few tricks and soon, she was kneading it with me. After a short rest, it was time for shaping. I said, “Just make a boule.” She looked at me confused. It was then I realized that because of my family tradition, I knew quite a bit more about bread baking than the average Jane.
So, I found two great bread recipes that are perfect for first time bakers. You don’t have to know what the gluten is doing or if the yeast is alive or not. It’s also a very simple recipe that is a great start to baking your own bread. Here’s a step-by-step guide you can bookmark and come back to, so you don’t have to re-read my ramblings.
Hear hear!
I honestly can no longer eat store bought bread, unless it was freshly made at an in-house bakery. Europe ruined me for bread.
You should try your hand at an Irish Soda bread. Baking soda is used as the leavener, so you don’t have to sit and wait for the darn yeast to multiply and make the bread grow. It’s a bit dense, especially if you use whole wheat flour, but boy is it tasty. (especially tasty slathered in salty butter!)
The bread bug bit me and now I’m exploring ways to make my own bread starter (alternative to packaged yeast) and making boat loads of French and other artisan breads.
You should check out Peter Reinhart’s books! He is a bread expert and has a lot of interesting information on the basics of bread baking– like right down to percentages for the recipes.