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January 10, 2010

First Attempt at Baking Artisan Bread

Ok, here it is... rising on the cookie sheet! I took the container out of the fridge and sprinkled flour on it. Then with one hand I grabbed a handful of dough (about the size of a grapefruit) and with the other hand using a serrated knife I cut it off from the rest of the dough. Quickly form a ball and set it down on the floured pizza peel. In my case, I used a baking sheet with no lip. I will need to get a pizza peel if this doesn't work, but hopefully I've put enough flour on it so it will slip easily enough onto my baking stone in the oven!

The oven is all preheated 450* with the baking stone lightly covered with corn meal inside heating up too. The recipe calls for a broiler pan to be put under the stone and then as soon as I slide the dough onto the stone, I need to put about a cup of hot water in the broiler pan and shut the door! STEAM is one of the keys to successful arisan bread. Below is a picture of the bread 30 minutes later!


There were 5 of us here for dinner tonight and there is NO BREAD LEFT! The crust was very crusty like artisan bread is and the flavor was very tastey! OOOh, I think I'm on to something good here! I think tomorrow night may have to be corn chowder and another loaf or two of this bread!
Pretty cool huh!?! Give it a try and let me know how yours turns out!

5 comments:

michelle5959 said...

Oh it looks delicious and you make it sound sooo EASY too!

Melanie said...

Michelle, it was SUPER easy!! I baked two more loaves tonight!! Definately the way to go.... try it and let me know how you guys like it! :)

Rebecca MacPherson said...

It looks delightful! Now I want to start making bread...

Anonymous said...

I am so happy you had a good experience. I make bread from this (and the new) book all the time. I got this book, what, nearly 2 years ago? And I've not bought bread since. Keep at it and if you have any newbie questions don't hesitate to ask!

mad4books said...

I know we're supposed to cut carbs, but this post made me want to jump in my car and drive the 3,000 miles to your house!!

Pass the butter. ;-)