Haven't tasted it yet, as it needs to cool first, but it sure was easy enough. Here is a picture of my dough, fresh from the fridge:
You can see the corner where I removed a bit to make tonight's dinner loaf.
Their instructions recommend letting it rise on a pizza peel, then transferring it to a baking stone inside a very hot oven for cooking. I have neither of those things, so I just let it rise on a cookie sheet, covered with my silicon baking mat. I do think I will invest in those bread baking tools if I find I like this process. (Psst. An unglazed terracotta tile and a large wooden cutting board will easily take the place of those high falutin' gadgets. And they cost considerably less. )
The finished product. The top was slashed with a serrated knife to help it expand during cooking. The crust isn't as pretty as I'd like, but I think that's because I didn't do one of the steps correctly. You're supposed to put an empty pan in the bottom of your oven while it heats. When the bread goes in, you add a cup of water to that pan and shut the door. The steam helps build that beautiful, glossy, crackling crust every one ooohs and ahhs over. I put the pan and water in at the same time and then kept opening the door to peek. So I don't think it got much steam action. Oh well. Next time.
Last night while poking around, I find a great video by the authors of the book. They are showing their method off on a TV morning show. It gives a pretty good idea of how it works.
You can see the corner where I removed a bit to make tonight's dinner loaf.
Their instructions recommend letting it rise on a pizza peel, then transferring it to a baking stone inside a very hot oven for cooking. I have neither of those things, so I just let it rise on a cookie sheet, covered with my silicon baking mat. I do think I will invest in those bread baking tools if I find I like this process. (Psst. An unglazed terracotta tile and a large wooden cutting board will easily take the place of those high falutin' gadgets. And they cost considerably less. )
The finished product. The top was slashed with a serrated knife to help it expand during cooking. The crust isn't as pretty as I'd like, but I think that's because I didn't do one of the steps correctly. You're supposed to put an empty pan in the bottom of your oven while it heats. When the bread goes in, you add a cup of water to that pan and shut the door. The steam helps build that beautiful, glossy, crackling crust every one ooohs and ahhs over. I put the pan and water in at the same time and then kept opening the door to peek. So I don't think it got much steam action. Oh well. Next time.
Last night while poking around, I find a great video by the authors of the book. They are showing their method off on a TV morning show. It gives a pretty good idea of how it works.
1 comment:
You KNOW I'm all kinds of excited about this!!! I MUST HAVE this book!
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