As my first official post, let me give a little introduction of myself and this blog. My husband, Tim, and I (my name is Mary Grace) decided we should do something together, just us two. And since we have an 8 1/2 month old baby (Miles), alone time isn't necessarily easy to come by. We wanted something we can do at home that was different for the both of us. Since we love bread so much, we decided it would be pretty neat to make our own. I hope this blog will capture many different kinds of bread and experiences (and lessons). We really want to make bread at least once a week this year. Having a blog documenting everything can hopefully motivate us to keep going. Follow us on this little project bread of ours and feel free to chime in with any thoughts.
The first bread we decided to try was the Baguette. A simple yet wonderful bread. Tim and I have never made bread before (other than the No Knead Bread recipe) so we wanted something "classic" to start with. The recipe sounded simple and we worked nicely together throughout the whole process (which is always a plus). As most things simple, it can be hard to do properly. Luckily, this simple recipe resulted in a great baguette to enjoy for New Year's Eve. I'm thinking this is a bread that we will do again and try out different techniques for it, etc. This bread was so good. And we are still eating it today!
Our New Year's Eve spread
consisted of our baguette plus fruits & candies (circles!) to bring good luck for the new year!
Baguette
from 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood
scant 4 cups white bread flour
1 package yeast
warm water to mix
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 sick butter, softened
Makes 1 loaf
Mix 1 1/3 cups of the flour with all the yeast and enough warm water to make a thick batter, then let rise overnight. (We started this process early New Year's Eve morning and figured it would be ok by night time)
Add the rest of the flour, the salt, and butter to the dough and slowly add enough water to make a soft, pliable dough. Rest the dough for 1 hour. (Tim and I are pretty picky and detailed about most things - the engineer in us, I guess, and we really wanted to make sure what pliable dough really meant.. we're such novices!)
Line a baking sheet (we used parchment paper). Bang the air out of the dough and roll into a baguette shape. Put it on the baking sheet and let prove for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Before the dough goes into the oven, using a sharp knife, make slashes along its length. Bake for 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
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