Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Adventures in Bread Baking

I've never made bread before last night. Wait, scratch that - I tried to make bread once when I was in high school and failed. I tried to make some sort of special French Christmas bread that I thought would be perfect for my French class Christmas party - all I remember is that it took forever to make, required letting the dough sit overnight, and then it turned out as hard as a rock.

Ever since then, I've always thought of bread as a difficult and time consuming thing to make, and I haven't bothered trying to bake it again - until last night. I found a recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen that was labeled the best and easiest bread you will ever make - and I promise you, Alexandra wasn't kidding!

I made the bread in the evening, and it only took a few hours from start to finish - plus there's no kneading involved. Mine didn't exactly turn out perfect - I didn't have the proper kind of bowls to use, so for that reason (or possibly something else I screwed up) my bread didn't rise very high.

This is what mine looked like...

peasant loaf
And this is what it should have looked like (from the original post)
However, despite the puny appearance of my bread, it was DELICIOUS! I really think it is one of my favorite breads ever.

Apologies for the yellowish, blurry pictures in this post. I had no intention of posting about this initially, but since I am still mentally obsessing over this bread a day later, I figured I'd write up a quick post to recommend it, ugly phone pics and all!

A tasty slice!
Do you make homemade bread or are you as scared of it as I was? Either way, I seriously recommend giving this recipe a try!!


12 comments:

  1. Hi Jess

    I have just started making my own bread too (well when I have time!), and it is so worth the effort. Problem is it is so delicious we end up eating it all in one sitting - nothing like carb overloading!

    Will have to give your recipe a try.

    Kate x
    http://www.kateathome.com/

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    1. Hi Kate! Yes we had that same problem! We ate BOTH loaves in 24 hours, haha. I think I'll only be able to make it once in a while!

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  2. I have a breadmaker, so it does all the work for me; however, a friend of mine who is a total foodie showed me how to make artisan bread in the oven...and it turned out amazing! I need to make them again...they'd be perfect for soup bowls.

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    1. I'd love to have a breadmaker! We have so little storage & counter space in our condo that I can only have the essential appliances. I might just need to get one when we move though!
      And that artisan bread sounds delicious!

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  3. I love homemade bread! It smells so wonderful. I have a bread machine and I am not afraid to use it! Thanks for following me on Twitter.

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    1. I agree - the smell is one of the best parts of making it! So good!

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  4. That bread looks delicious :) Stopping by from GYB at Frugal Foodie Mama.

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  5. I should try to bake some bread myself ... bread is one of my favourite things :) Looks like you did a great job,too . I found your blog through the blog hop and im following you on bloglovin now. Check out mine, adayindurham.com!

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    1. I'm a huge bread lover too! I recommend giving baking it a try! Thanks for stopping by, Emily!

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  6. Oh, I'm so glad I saw this! Bread making scares me and I have never tried it because it seem soooo time consuming. However, I have been on the hunt for an easy recipe to try so I can hopefully start selling some at our Farmers' Market along with my other baked goods. Thanks so much for posting this! :)

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    1. Yeah you should give this one a try - I found it to be quick, easy, & delicious! Thanks for stopping by, Alicia!

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