Have You Baked Bread?

This bread making trip came out of the clear blue.  I somehow found Elly’s Everyday youtube channel and, you now how that goes. Down the rabbit hole. Elly is from Australia. She makes bread and soap making tutorials.  I followed her instructions to make my sourdough starter and I also intend to make one of her soap recipes.

Sarah Owens, the author of Sourdough has a tutorial with food52. This is the recipe I followed for my first loaf. She is currently based in Queens, NY and holds classes/workshops.

I then came across Mark Bitman’s video with Jim Lahey. He is the author of  My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No Knead Method. This is currently my favorite way to bake bread. I came to the conclusion that the only time I like sourdough is when it’s a soup vessel. I had the best clam chowder in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and it came in a sourdough bread bowl. I loved it! So, for now, I’ll put aside the sourdough.

Here are the ingredients for Jim Lahey’s no knead bread. I included a link for the video and also a link to the best written recipe I found.  It is a good first time bread baking recipe. Tell me if you try it.

You will need:

3 c of bread flour and more for dusting

1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 c of water

And that is all. Jim uses wheat bran for dusting. I used the same bread flour in the recipe.

I use an old corning ware casserole that can withstand a temperature of 500 f.  I put the dough on parchment paper and drop it in the casserole.

I have made 10 or 11 loaves now, and today I deviated and added a cup of coarsley shredded habanero cheddar cheese. It was a good choice.