Water + Flour + Air = Bread
If I could eat one thing every day for the rest of my life, it would be bread. Sorry fried chicken. To say that I love it is an understatement. Give me a warm, crusty, and perfectly made baguette and I'd be happy as a clam.
When I grew up in Vietnam, there was only one type of bread my family and I (and most of the country's population) ate and it was French baguette. It was simply called "bread" because there was no need for differentiation. I'm guessing the French introduced it to Vietnamese cuisine during their colonization. Vietnamese usually eat bread with stews, like Bo Kho, curries, sandwiches, and fried eggs. White sandwich bread became popular in the mid-90's and it was more expensive than baguettes.
I'm a baguette snob. There, I admit it and I'm not ashamed of it. A very good baguette is hard to find in the U.S. What makes a good baguette? It has to be airy and you could tell by the holes in it. If it's dense and meaty, it's not a good baguette. Quite frankly, it shouldn't even bear the name baguette. The crust has to be, well...crusty, thin, and golden. When you break into it, the crust should be flaky.
The best baguette and the only one my family would eat in Danbury, CT is from Stew Leonard's. My parents would drive across town on weekend mornings to just get the bread for our fried eggs. Sometimes, we would buy extra just to start munching on it on our drive home. We had to be careful to not get a ton of crumbs everywhere in the car.
I struggled to find a great baguette in Charlottesville. Even Albemarle Baking Company and Breadworks were just OK. They were not good enough for me to drive across town for on a weekend morning. Then, MarieBette opened and weekend mornings became blissful. They make one of the best baguettes I've ever had. If you live in Charlottesville and haven't tried it, please do so immediately. You can get them at their bakery and cafe on Rose Hill Drive, Foods of All Nations, and Integral Yoga. If you go to the bakery, they also make fantastic French pastries.
With my deep passion and love for bread, I've always wanted to learn how to make them. But, I was really intimidated by the process. I got the courage to at least try when I watched the "Air" episode of Cooked on Netflix. Michael Pollan made it sound so simple.
On November 12, 2016, I FINALLY learned how to make bread from my friend Melanie. She and her husband casually whip up bread, pizza dough, and pasta from scratch like an Italian grandmother. They also throw killer BBQs. They also own Twenty Paces, a cheese farm, with their friends. I have a total foodie crush on them ;)
Anyways, back to the bread lesson. Melanie didn't really use any measurement because the amount of flour, yeast, and water didn't need to be exact. It was all about how the dough felt when it came together. As Melanie puts it, the dough should feel pillowy and not sticky when you touch it. Plus, you can add a little more flour, water, or time for the dough to rise. I love the no measurement aspect of it because I prefer to eyeball my ingredients. (Have you noticed how many times I wrote "about," "as needed," or "to your taste" in my recipes?? This is why!)
Melanie also showed Alli and I how to make cinnamon raisin bread/rolls. They were out of this world! She made a coffee cream icing for them - YUM!!
Although measurements are not required, Melanie did give me some rough ones to guide me through my first solo bread making.
4.5 cups King Arthur bread flour
1.5 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
1 tbsp salt
1.5 tbsp yeast
sugar
1/4 cup of warm water
Tri-color quinoa, sesame seeds, or other types of seeds/grains
corn meal
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a pizza stone.
Add the yeast to 1/4 cup warm water with a little bit of flour and sugar. I learned that the flour and sugar are food for the yeast. Let the mixture sit until it bubbles. That's when the yeast is fully alive and ready to do its magic.
Mix the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. If you'd like some extra flavor or texture, add a mixture of grains and seeds. I added about 2 tbsp of tri-color quinoa and bit of toasted sesame seeds. Add the yeast mixture and then, gradually add warm water until the dough comes together. The dough should be pillowy and not sticky. It's a bit hard to describe what exactly "pillowy" feels like. I guess like a firm pillow...? When you press the dough with your finger, it shouldn't feel very firm.
Knead the dough in a mixer with a dough hook attachment on medium speed for a couple of minutes. The dough should easily pull away from the sides of the bowl. If it's sticking to the bowl, add a little bit of flour.
Sprinkle some flour on a clean counter and continue kneading the dough by hand for a couple more minutes. Fold the dough onto itself, knead, turn slightly, and repeat.
Shape the dough into a ball and put it in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with seran wrap and a towel. Let the dough rest in the bowl in a warm spot, such as the microwave. In my first attempt making bread, I thought the dough felt more dense than pillowy, so Melanie suggested that I add a tablespoon of warm water in the bottom of the bowl then put the dough on top of it and let it rise longer. It helped make the dough more pillowy in the rising process. The dough should double in size, which took mine about 1-1.5 hours. You can also tell the dough is ready when you poke it with your finger, your finger imprint holds, and it doesn't spring back quickly.
Cut the dough in half and shape it into two loaves. Let the loaves rise again until they are soft and jiggle when you gently shake them. If you have a pizza peel, sprinkle some corn meal on it and let the loaves rise on the peel. The peel makes it easier to move the loaves onto the pizza stone for baking later. It also makes the shaking easier.
When the loaves finish rising the second time, cut some diagonal slits on them, and gently transfer them onto the pizza stone in the oven. Throw in about 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the oven or spray some water into the oven if you have a spray bottle; then, shut the oven door right away. The water creates steam that will help give the bread a good crust.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is golden. You can tell the bread is done baking when you tap the bottom of it and the sound is hollow.
Here's my solo bread:
It didn't look or tasted bad! I would give it a 6 haha. It was definitely not worth driving across town for. But, I was still really proud of making my own bread. It felt kind of amazing to eat it and to know that I made it with my own two hands. All thanks to Melanie :)
I'm VERY far from even coming close to perfecting this skill, so if you have any tips to or want to give me more lessons so I could rank my own bread at an 8 or higher, I would be indebted to you.