It's a pity you can't smell this.
Baking bread (like slow cooking) is excellent aroma therapy. Even if you don't believe in the benefits of pleasant smells (and I don't) walking into a home where bread is baking is always a treat for the senses.
Anyway, I've taken to baking one of these daily. Apart from the baking aroma, it also tastes good, and the people around our place who snack find the fresh loaf attractive.
They must, because it's usually gone by mid afternoon. Because I'm away from home working every second week during term time, it's a fortnightly phenomenon.
The recipe (which turns out crusty loaves with the characteristics of french baguettes) is very simple - twice as much strong baker's flour as warm water, a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoon of yeast. Nothing else - KISS principle. You need to turn the oven up to its maximum and put a container of water inside.
I have a bread maker, but use it only for kneading and proofing. Once those processes are through, the mixture goes into a fan forced oven for thirty minutes.
2 comments:
Top tip from my baking book - weigh everything exactly with electronic scales. Including the water. Don't add 350ml of water (for instance) - add 350 grams of water. Dough comes out perfect every time.
Mmmm, bread. We've been cooking lots, but we don't have a bread maker. I like the kneading process.
Everybody kneads somebody sometimes...
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