When I first bought a KitchenAid mixer, I was all over bread baking. Totally addicted. But my inability to make a super crusty bread with a super squishy inside caused a brief bread baking hiatus. And then I re-discovered the ever-popular New York Times bread recipe and figured it was high time to bake some bread again.
But this time around, it was going to be different. You see… I’ve learned some new tricks, some new cheats, and I’m less afraid than ever to use them. Like “helping out” rising dough. I heated my oven to 170 degrees (the lowest it would go) and then turned it off. When it lowered to about 100 degrees, I set my covered dough bowl in there for two hours.
When I removed the dough from the oven, I knew there was a possibility that I messed something up, big time. But when I saw that the small, sticky dough turned into a huge dough monster, it was oh so apparent that assisting the dough was totally ok.
This recipe yielded 4 loaves, which was a perfect way to fit a little experimenting in. I made one large traditional loaf, one round loaf in a ceramic cast iron, and another loaf brushed with egg whites in a ceramic cast iron. The most beautiful loaf, which I have yet to cut in to because it’s that beautiful, was the traditional loaf. And the loaf with the best crust was the egg white loaf.
Next time, I plan on coating the traditional loaf with egg whites halfway through the baking process. And next time… I’ll be adding fresh herbs and cutting the recipe in half. Because nobody, and I mean nobody, needs multiple loaves of crusty, squishy bread in their kitchen at one time.
Yum! I’ve gotten out of the habit of bread baking as well, but I think I’m going to try my hand at English muffin bread today. We’ll see how that goes!
OH HI, HLS ROOMIE REUNION!!
I’d love to hear how that turns out! Perhaps English muffin sized bread would allow me to control myself a bit more. I’ve almost inhaled two loaves already…
Mmmm this looks SO good! Definitely need to make this soon!
You definitely should! I’ll be keeping a lookout on Instagram for bread baking pics 🙂
Mmmm this looks like it would go PERFECT with some yummy olive oil to dip it in 🙂 I’ve never made bread before, but this recipe looks so good that I might have to try it out soon 🙂
This is a really good first bread recipe to try and it would taste wonderful with just about anything! I’ve been eating it plain or with jam/cranberry sauce.
I love baking bread. Fresh homemade bread is the best! I’ll have to give this recipe a try!
Let me know if you toss any good stuff in the dough!