I do not do a lot of baking. I am mostly a big fan of the one-pot dinner (though these days, the one-pot dinner seems to require several cutting boards, a lot of roasting in the oven, and, from time to time, the rice cooker as well). Baking is scientific. You have to measure things correctly. You have to time things. You have to have a reliable oven. You have to enjoy sweet side foods, when pretty much all I want is dinner, with an option on leftovers.
But I love bread. And when I found the simplest-looking recipe for bread EVER last week in the NYTimes (surprisingly good for recipes as well as pro-Democrat opinions), I had to try it:
The article, with links to white and whole-wheat options:
The original article and recipe, mostly the same but with a much longer rising time:
I love reading this stuff because it not only gives me the recipes, but also explains why they work the way they do.
So I decided I would try the bread recipe- all it calls for is bread flour, yeast, salt, and water. Mix them together, let the dough sit for about 4 hours, knead it a couple of times, let it sit for about 30 minutes longer. After the kneading, pop a big covered pot (I used Marjon's Mario Batali cast-iron Dutch oven) into the stove at 450 F to let it warm up. When the dough is ready, put it in the pot, cover it, and let it cook for about 30 minutes. Then uncover the pot and let it cook for another 15 minutes or so. And poof, real bread:
Sorry it's an after-cutting picture, and I didn't take any pictures of the process either, because I totally did not expect it to work! But it did, and I was completely taken aback. And the bread is pretty damn good, too. It's super-crunchy on the outside, especially right out of the oven, and nice and soft on the inside. And amazingly cheap to make- less than $3 for a big thing of White Lily bread flour and about 25 cents a piece for packets of yeast. Spend five bucks and I can make several loaves. It doesn't have a lot of flavor, but hey, it's white bread. And I think it would be pretty good sandwich bread- I bet I could lengthen the loaf a bit to make it longer and skinnier before I pop it in the oven.
So, since I had, all of a sudden and completely unexpectedly, good bread, I needed something to go with the bread. So I made Squash and Potato Soup, something that I made up earlier in the summer and have made several times since. The recipe evolved out of Squash and Cauliflower Casserole, which is also excellent. Basically I cut up a few yellow squash and roast them in the oven, and bake a small potato at the same time:
Meanwhile, I saute a small yellow or white (or Vidalia) onion on the stovetop. The squash get all brown and crunchy and caramelized and delicious:
Usually the potato takes a little longer to cook, so I just let the squash and onion cool off a bit. When the potato is ready, I dump all the veggies into my food processor (a Christmas present from last year. I have no idea why I decided I needed a food processor, because I didn't use it for six months, but once I started it's been put to good use about once a week.) Eventually it looks like this:
Then I take the...um...paste? I have no idea what a good word for this would be. But I'll stick with paste. I take the paste and pour it back into the pot I used to saute the onions (less clean-up). I heat it up, then add, one at a time, several cups of milk. This time I used about three cups of milk. When it's available, I like to put a couple of teaspoons of creme fraiche in too, but the Farmer's Market store hasn't had it in a while. It's perfectly good without, but this time I saw some "Mexican sour cream" in the Wal-Mart and decided to try that. It's bascially the same thing. Then I bring the soup to a simmer, let it go for a while, and then eat it.
No, it does not normally look this pretty, with the bread and the cream drizzled over it, but I made an effort for the blog. So. All in all, a very successful cooking weekend.
And if you're scared of baking, seriously, try this bread. It is so amazingly easy, I promise you can do it too.
5 comments:
What did you bake the bread in? I saw this on the Today Show and they used these gorgeous small Le Creuset pots, but I practically had to chop off an arm to get the one I have now! (And I don't think I want a loaf of break that big, though it would be a conversation starter!) Do you think a Corningware round baking dish would work? I've been wanting to try this bread, too--I'm so glad you did!
And the soup looks awesome, too!
i am hungry after this post, but your food looks amazing. i'll try that bread sometime.
I baked the bread in Marjon's cast iron (enameled) Dutch oven- just plop the dough down in the middle. Really anything will work so long as you can put a cover on it for the first half-hour of baking. The dough lets off steam as it cooks, and the covered dish keeps the steam inside, which gives the loaf its lovely crunchy outside. My loaf ended up being about 4 1/2 inches tall, but you could probably flatten the dough out some so that it wouldn't be that high.
I'm trying the whole wheat version this afternoon. I'll let you know!
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