Mission Accomplished: Artisan Bread

Full post and blog link here: http://okokletsdothis.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/mission-accomplished-artisan-bread/

I have about a 60 percent success rate with bread. I have been badly looking to change this. I can make brioche well. I have made some really serious pretzels. Pizza dough is a non-issue. But a big loaf of bread is more difficult for me. And, I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong.

Bread flour! In the past I've been using all-purpose flour, and it has sometimes yielded bread that you might use as a weapon. Doubled in size? Never. Grew by 20 percent? Sure.

This bread was nothing short of fantastic. It's fluffy and chewy and the inside is soft with a slightly crisp outer layer. It lasted 5 days without getting weird. That's pretty great, no? Michael wanted to know if I could recreate it so we can stop buying bread. I am planning on it!

I adapted a few recipes and came up with this one. Here's how it happened:

1.5 cups warm water (~110 degrees)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 package active dry yeast (I used Fleischmann's Rapid Rise)

3 1/4 cups bread flour

In a stand mixer or bowl, pour in your warm water and sprinkle yeast on top. Add sugar and salt, give a gentle stir and let stand about 5 minutes. If your yeast is active and you've not killed it (I have done it!), it will start to be foamy. If not, start over. The whole exercise won't work.

Add your flour and incorporate. It will be very shaggy and sticky. Transfer mixture to a lightly oiled bowl (I like olive or grapeseed oil), and cover with a towel.

Let rise in a warm place. I let it rise on a warm stove while I'm baking other things, but one option Anne told me about was to let it rise in a cold oven with just the light on. Apparently, the light alone raises the temp in the oven to 100 degrees, which is great for rising!

Let it rise for about 2.5 hours. It will be growing in leaps and bounds. With floured hands, cut or rip a good handful of bread off the dough, and set aside. The dough is going to still be wet and kind of slippery. Don't worry. Still with floured hands, shape the dough into a ball of sorts on a piece of parchment set on a baking sheet. There should be a light dusting of flour on your bread ball.

Roll out the little piece of bread you have set aside. It'll be sticky and snap back a lot, but should roll out easily. Stretch this piece of bread across and around the top of the bread. Tuck the ends under the ball. Make a few knife marks across the top, cover and let rise about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is preheating, place a pizza brick in the oven. Transfer dough on parchment paper to pizza brick. Add a pan below the pizza brick and fill with 1 cup water (I used a small LeCreuset for this purpose). This will release some steam and help with the crispy crust. Cook 30-40 minutes. The dough will continue to rise in the oven.

If you can manage to let it cool before cutting, try that. Otherwise, it'll be super hot, so use a dishtowel to hold the top lightly and cut with a good breadknife. We hope you like it!