Thursday, March 15, 2018

Seriously Simple Staff

Staff of life, that is...  

I was feeling like some fresh bread the other day and broke out my favorite old (and long out of print) Breadcraft book from my very first days as a bread baker. I had been dreaming of sourdough French bread, but, I didn't have the patience to fiddle with creating a starter and waiting for it to mature. I am a brat and I wanted it now - or as near to now as homemade bread can be!


So, I chose a very, very simple French bread recipe that I had never made (there aren't many recipes or variations in that book that I haven't tried, so this was a surprise). This was perfect, since I was in the throes of carving material testing and these loaves required no kneading, no shaping and not much in the way of attention.

Five simple ingredients and about four hours later, I had these two little beauties cooling on my counter. I took one to my sister's house and it didn't make it through the night. The one I kept at my house had a major dent put in it at dinner and the rest disappeared as French toast for breakfast the next day. 

When a batch of bread evaporates that quickly, it's a serious success. Yep. That'll happen again.

4 comments:

Wise Wanderer said...

What? Recipe not included?? ��

Wise Wanderer

Webfoot said...

I wondered if someone might ask.

Dissolve 1 tablespoon yeast in a cup of lukewarm water.
Add this to 4 cups unbleached flour sifted with 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoons salt.
Add just enough of a second cup of lukewarm water to create a soft, sticky dough.
Let rise in a warm place about and hour and a half.
When dough is high, knead it down and divide into two loaves.
Put the loaves into very well buttered pyrex casseroles, about 3 inches deep and 6 inches in diameter.
Let rise again until double in bulk.
Place in a cold oven and set heat at 350 degrees.
Bake 1 hour.

That's it. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! In fact, I think I'll go make a batch for dinner!

Anonymous said...

If you made them smaller would they work as soup bowls or was the texture wrong?

Don't Panic!

Webfoot said...

Hi, Don't Panic!
I don't know why you couldn't use these as bread bowls. The crust seems sturdy enough to hold its own with soup and the interior could be hollowed out easily enough. Try it and let me know how it goes - I guess the worst case scenario if it doesn't work perfectly is that you have a lovely piece of bread to go with your soup in a regular bowl. :)
Incidentally, Wise Wanderer inspired me to make another batch last night to go with my salad and it was great all over again.
Webfoot