Breads
It’s one thing to beat dough and bake it, but letting it rise in the right way is very difficult. I’ve realized that when one uses a basket as a mold for a loaf the bread is sitting upside down in the basket as the curve of the bottom becomes the upward mound. This distributes the gasses more evenly. The loaves I make tend to be dense on the bottom with large air pockets at the top. So with these little dinner rolls I let them rise right side up for a bit, then I flipped them upside down and let them rise some more, then I flipped them again right side up onto the baking sheet. It seems that making bread, which can only be described as an arcane art, is composed of all sorts of small bits of practical knowledge like this.
With the flour I ground I’m making some sourdough. I’m going to build it up over several days to get a very ripe and tangy flavor.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Can you recommend something for someone that wants to make bread at home but doesn’t know where to begin?
May 13th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It is very frustrating trying to find good cookbooks for bread. I was at Powell’s today and scanned through a few books. There’s a DK book with some great photos illustrating the whole process, but their recipes tend to recycle all the bad misinformation so often clogging bread books. But as for a simple recipe book, Brother Juniper’s Bread Book looks great. Simple and functional recipes. It’s by Peter Reinhart. I’m using another of his books, Crust and Crumb. Everything he says is born from experience and he has really straightforward and refreshing explanations. For something even simpler, have you tried the no knead bread?