I don’t know about you, but baking bread used to me a very big obstacle for me. My dough would never rise no matter what I did. I tried new yeast, new methods…I never got my yeast to work until I started mixing it with lukewarm water and some flour. That really helped me build my confidence! Homemade bread is so incredibly good, but I’ve never really been content with the flavor of any recipe that I’ve tried. I really don’t prefer that yeasty flavor of some homemade breads when I make my own…when someone else makes it I think it’s great but I think that’s just one of my quirks!
I’d been using the “start” to make bread for awhile and I decided it’s time to shove myself out of my comfort zone and try something new. I will share the recipe with you at the end of this post.
Dennis, one of my fellow bloggers, shared a post about a post not too long ago and I printed out the recipe he shared for Artisan bread. This bread is so easy to make it’s not even funny. And it requires no kneading…so for me that means no scrubbing the counter and wiping that gunk all over my kitchen! 😀 😀 😀
And do you know what makes this recipe even better?
Yes my friends, you can mix the dough with a bread machine. Don’t work harder work smarter in my humble opinion. I started to use my food processor but this recipe makes a liiiiittle too much dough for mine and when it got mad at me and made a growling noise I decided to get out my bread machine. I’ll have you know it was clean when I started. Yes mom, I am still that messy in the kitchen. 😉
After the dough is mixed, I dump it right into my storage container. I never get bored with photographing the first seconds of the dough during the rising process up to the last when the dough has gotten so big it needs its own name! (This one is “Doughnny”.)
This is what we call covered-but-not-tightly. It will try to creep out so keep an eye…
You’re going to need to make your dough into a ball, pulling the sides underneath it and tucking the edges under so it appears to be a seamless little ball of dough and let it rise. Sprinkle with flour and cut some professional little marks on top and you’re on the right track!
If you don’t have a pizza stone I would highly advise getting one. This one was a present from my dad. (Thank you dad!) I would also highly advise seasoning it ahead of time and not waiting until you want to use it like I did. This stone will come in handy, I’m sure of it…but as for the pizza peel I used a cutting board and dusted it with corn meal before putting my little “Doughnny” on it.
Naturally, I don’t wait for the bread to fully cool down but I give it a valiant effort. I had to have some hot, fresh bread and a steaming cup of coffee while I listened to the radio interview with Chef Dennis!
I highly recommend this bread recipe to you. One important thing I found out is that salt adds a lot of flavor to the bread. This is a “duh” to some of you but to people like me who are very new to some things I was truly amazed. Although I should have known. I’ve become salt-phobic in the past few months and I need to be comfortable using it in moderation. As long as I avoid putting salt on bacon it will not have that many negative effects on anyone’s health. The disbursing of salt into bread dough is something different altogether. 🙂 Growing up we didn’t use much salt if at all in our baking because it was known for being bad. Old habits die hard and I gritted my teeth whilst adding the 1 1/2 tablespoons to this dough but everything will be fine. The next batch will be bursting with flavor and amazing reactions to its recipients!
I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I have this past week.
Does anyone else have a terrible time baking bread?
Try Anything Once 