Bread Adventures (Batch 2 Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)

  Working our way through Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Herzog and Zoe Francois

  So far, we've done four loaves..... but now, writing with the book in front of me, I apparently went out of order :-)  I am sure that you've come to expect that of me anyway...... so I will make up for it by trying the ciabatta (ciabatta meand slipper in English... really?)

     I forgot to share that the book calls for a pizza peel and a baking stone..  I had to do a bit of research to figure out what a pizza peel was!  In case you don't know, it's that wooden paddle thing that you see on tv that is used to slide pizzas in the big ovens.  But I am using the equipment in my poor under-nourished kitchen.... a flat cookie sheet... and so far, it is working.  Of course, if I end up being a decent baker who ENJOYS baking.... I may be able to justify the cost of new toys... but for now, I keep allocating that extra money to books and Starbucks :-)

I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like :-) but there was a warning that if I made it too thin it would POOF like a pita

I'm not sure it was thin enough - but it certainly wasn't TOO thin :-)

Also - this second batch of dough, I ran out of white flour and substituted whole wheat....  I don't live anywhere that I can run out and get replacement stuff so substitutes are a way of life around here.
There are some suggestions for herbs to use in the basic dough to give a different flavor but I'll wait for another batch!

Taste was fine.... I still get excited when the bread looks good and the family will eat it....

I really had fun with the next one.... Pain D'Epi (Wheat Stalk Bread)

Pain D'Epi

The pan d'epi is made by using scissors and snipping a baguette shaped bread diagonally before baking.  My baguette was still a little fat but it's all about the taste, right?

   My next one will be better.  I will take the time to make the baguette thinner so the "stalks" are more dinner roll sized and also place them a little closer together so that you can actually break them off each other.

The last bread in this chapter is a sandwich loaf.  Okay - that doesn't sound too hard..... But the day I pulled it out to make, I was in a time crunch.  This is the first loaf that needs more than 30 minutes to rest.   So... making assumptions and not reading directions got me into trouble!

 Another day went by before I had a chance to bake this one..... I forgot to slash the top - so the bread vented on the side.  I am not sure this will work for sandwiches for us..... but I see that I can do a couple of things differently next time.  First I will use a bit more dough to make it larger.... and second, I won't forget to slash the top (uh.... read ALL the instructions) again :-)

This is definitely a FUN adventure - and EASY!  It feels good to have a high success rate baking something everyone thinks is HARD.... shhhh!!   Come enjoy my secret with me :-)