I am thrilled to report that FIVE people–yes FIVE–took up my challenge to bake bread this weekend and sent in pictures of their mega-successful loaves. Inspired by my “Make Bread” post, the first bread photo rolled in from Benjamin (of Tales of the Racoon Fink) who says he used to have a bread machine but got rid of it and that doing it from scratch was “not that much harder” and “definitely much more satisfying.”
Next up is Caree from Gulfport, MS. Here she is with her bread–its beauty is making her blind:
And Then Along Comes Mary “Breadchick” of The Sour Dough blog. She wrote up her experience there and titled her post “The Biggest Boule I Ever Made.” Mary chose to let the bread speak for itself in the photo, and so here’s the bread sans baker:
Meet Jennifer of Valley Victuals who says hers didn’t come out as well as mine. “At the very last step before baking, when you are supposed to ever so gently shape it back into a ball, I heard it make this horrible hissing sound. It was just like somebody letting the air out of a tire. It definitely got puffier again as it baked, but it didn’t have that beautiful ball shape, and the inside was pretty dense, but still tasty.” Ah well. Here’s the photo!
Finally there’s Lynn of One Hundred Things–a site that sets forth 100 things she must do before she’ll fall in love again. Baking bread was #5 on the list so I’ve helped her along on her path to romance and fulfillment. Here she is with her loaf:
So congratulations to all the weekend bread bakers, and to anyone else who still wants to bake bread my offer still stands: you too can be a bread baking star!
This looks fun! I’m going to try to do this before and send the photo before any more of my holiday guests arrive (I’ve already got two here). I’m trying to not run out of steam before the BIG day/dinner on Thursday.
Sounds fun! Unfortunately baking in general is not my game and baking bread terrifies me. Mm, but that bread sure is making me hungry.
Yvo, I felt the same way, but this bread is really easy. Go for it! The worst that can happen is that it’s inedible.
Bread: I used to live in Greensboro, NC for a short time and every Saturday I always got up early to make sure I was at Simple Kneads early to get a loaf of warm Parmesan Walnut Bread. It was probably some of the best bread I’ve ever had. I would kill for their exact recipe. I’m in LA now but I will always miss NC for one reason… my Simple Kneads.
http://www.simplekneads.com/
There was also the local Goat Cheese lady, as everyone called her, that sold her stuff at the farmers’ market every sat… put that on the PWBread… wow.
They also had this pistachio curry bread that was amazing. sounds horrid but so good. I’ve never seen a recipe for that.
Does sound fun, but the last time I touched dough it fell apart and the time before that it was too hard. But I’m resilient and will try again.
Add me to the bread baker’s list!
http://www.petecarpenter.com/2006/11/21/the-best-thing-since/
Everyone should go try this recipe if they can. It’s foolproof and fantastic.
i agree with benjamin that making it from scratch is not that much harder. and it’s far more satisfying. but it definitly takes more active time, which i don’t have. so i got a breadmaker. it was free, thanks to all those lexisnexis points. i make bread all the time in it and it comes out to about 50 cents a loaf, which i couldn’t beat unless i had a time machine. i still do it by hand when i have time, but mostly breadmachines are rad if you love fresh bread and are short on time and money.
So, this may sound like a stupid question, but if I were to cut the batch in half and let them rise seperately, could I bake each half in a loaf pan?
Lynne, my guess is that you wouldn’t want to use a loaf pan. I don’t think it’s that kind of bread. GOod luck!
Adam