Give Us This Day

I can't bake bread.

Sure, I make a mean quick bread--several of them, actually, including the Amish Friendship Bread I've blogged about here (yep, still feeding the starter on my counter, if you want any!). And I can bake cakes, cookies, and a wonderful crumb crust apple pie (albeit with frozen pie crust).

But if the baking requires some actual manual dexterity--i.e. kneading or rolling (as for pie crust)--I don't know how. Apparently, my mom's mom, could bake, and I know that my mom's sister, my Aunt T, bakes, but I have never really gotten a bread baking lesson (though, I did get a wonderful noodle lesson from Aunt T. Homemade croutons are the best. And she makes a wonderful dewberry cobbler). I don't really remember my mom baking, though she says she knows how--I mean, she did teach me the cookies and cakes, but not bread.

I've tried. I followed Laurie Colwin's recipe for bread and it was too hard and chewy--overkneaded, right? I also tried Julia Child's recipe--same results. I think breadbaking is not a skill you can learn from a book or television show. You need numerous opportunities to stand with a real baker and learn as you go along--I think a lot of it is about feel. Something books and tv just don't have.

I haven't tried bread baking in awhile, mainly because of the kiddos' wheat allergy. Seems a waste of time, maybe even cruel somehow, to perfect a skill I can't share with my kids right now. About a year ago, the NYTimes published a recipe that was easy and practically no-fail. But I didn't try it then. I'm reminded of it because today they've published yet another no-fail, no-knead bread recipe. I read the article and that desire to bake my family's own bread crept up on me again. I could be a secret, midnight baker, providing loaves surreptiously for DP and myself. The holidays are coming up. Maybe it's a good time to try again.

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Recipe: Simple Crusty Bread
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal.
1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 loaves.
Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

Dr. Jeff Hertzberg, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day