Wednesday 21 April 2010

River Cottage Bread Making - Sheer Pleasure


These were my very own finished products - I kid you not. Perfectly imperfect - two loaves and a handful of bread rolls.

I borrowed this book from the library: Bread: River Cottage Handbook No. 3

and couldn't wait to get started.
This photo shows my basic dough after kneading it for a good 10 - 15 minutes.



The book does go into ALL the details for making a really good basic loaf - it recommends perfecting that before moving on to the trickier options - does anyone outside of bakeries actually make ciabatta? Must take 72 hours if you do it properly. This was after about an hour of letting it rise - certainly looks bigger....but now you have to deflate it (knock it back). Feels so good though - breadmaking is a really sensual experience - dough just feels so soft, warm and elastic and you know you're going to eat it too. 







2 comments:

lolb said...

I used to be the dough queen, plenty of experience after owning a wood fired pizza restaurant ;-) Unfortunately Ibby is completely gluten intolerant so I never bake bread anymore. I've yet to find the perfect gluten free bread recipe ;-(

Grazing Kate said...

what a shame for Ibby - I am embarrassed that while doing that latest blog, I got completely sidetracked while making dinner, so just posted it anyway (haven't figured out how to Save as Draft yet) - was sposed to show all the steps with some lovely stop animation of the bread rising...will complete it soon. My Artist's Way is going into overdrive and I'm playing with so many ideas that I'm a little unfocused. At least I'm no longer 'blocked', I guess. Thanks for the comment!!

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