My sister gave me a pizza stone for Christmas. Well, technically, she gave me glass knitting needles that I would never use. So we exchanged them for a pizza stone which I just got the other day, and, anyway, today was the first day I had a chance to use it. So I decided to pull out my original, favorite bread recipe.

It turns out, I’ve been baking bread for twenty-one years now. 21 years!

I know this because I saved the pages from the Food and Wine issue that had the first bread recipe I fell in love with, and it’s dated February 1988.

Really, though, my love affair with baking bread goes further back than that. I blame Louisa May Alcott, really. Uncle Alec tells Rose in Eight Cousins (one of my childhood favorites) that the true way to tell a real lady is by the quality of her bread and her buttonholes–none of that fancy cooking and embroidery. Naturally, I wanted to be a lady (or at least, I wanted to be when I wasn’t outside playing in the woods), so I immediately started trying to teach myself to sew and to bake.

Of course, there were setbacks. I would read “set dough in warm place to rise” and would put my bowl of dough into an oven set to warm … so that the poor dough would start to bake around the edges. Trying to mix it without an electric mixer was hard on my arms, and Mom would complain that I was making a mess. (Which I probably was, BUT she also would walk into the kitchen at the worst possible moment before I had a chance to clean up.) I actually grew to detest the smell of yeast so much that I couldn’t bring myself to eat the bread I baked–and couldn’t stand warm rolls at restaurants anymore, either.

I was only about 11, though, and Mom doesn’t bake so she couldn’t help me out, so you have to make allowances, okay?

Then, in 1988, I found this article, with the author talking about baking bread with his daughter, and how she said, “But it’s alive. It feels like clay with life in it,” and how it became a tradition for them.

Not to mention that the recipe sounded like FUN. You start a “sponge” the night before, and get to throw ice cubes into the oven for steam. Much more fun than the Betty Crocker recipe I’d tried from Mom’s old cookbook!

I haven’t actually made this bread in a while … years, even … but I did today.

And you know what? Throwing ice cubes into a hot oven is still fun.

A couple links for you:

An article about Martha’s Vineyard in the current issue of the Smithsonian, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning Geraldine Brooks. That’s a triple-win combination, and a sweet little article about Winter on the island.

Do you remember the movie Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, back when they were still married? It came out the same summer as the Jurassic Park movie and I dragged Mom miles and miles to the (not so very) nearest movie theater playing it and sat entranced with the gorgeous scenery, lush words, and great story and acting (Denzel Washington! Robert Sean Leonard! Even Keanu Reeves). All while dinosaurs loudly rampaged on the other side of the wall–an interesting juxtaposition. Anyway, my very favorite scene from the entire movie is right here on You Tube. When Denzel and the others try to convince Benedick that Beatrice–who really despises him–loves him. They talk loudly about her passion while he eavesdrops, dumbstruck, but oh, it’s so, so funny! Kenneth Branagh is pure genius in this scene. Love it, love it, love it.

The recipe, if you’re interested:

Basic Country Loaf

Sponge (make 12-14 hours ahead):

1 tablespoon (1 package) active dry yeast
1 ½ cup warm water (105-110 degrees–it should feel lukewarm to your finger)
2 cup unbleached, all purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in ¼ c warm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1 ¼ c water and the flour, beating for 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature 12-14 hours.

Dough:

¾ c coarsely ground whole wheat flour
1 c warm water (105-110 degrees)
1 tbls coarse or sea salt
About 5 ½ c flour
1 egg white, lightly beaten (opt.)
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, cracked wheat for topping (opt.)

Stir the whole wheat flour, warm water, salt, and about 4 cups flour into the sponge and stir until the dough becomes hard to work, then turn onto a well-floured surface. Let it rest while you clean the bowl. Start kneading, gradually adding about 1 ½ c more flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic, 8-10 minutes.

Return dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until tripled in volume, about 2 hours.

Turn dough out again and, if desired, tear off small hunk (6 ounces) for levain. Divide remaining dough in half and shape each into a disk 1 ½” thick. Which your palms, coax the sides down and under all around, stretching the gluten cloak and plumping up each loaf into a round shape. Pinch together the seams at the borttom and place rounds seam-side down on 2 lightly greased baking sheets. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450. Paint top and sides of loaves with beaten egg white to glaze and sprinkle, if desired, with one of the toppings, then place in the middle rack of the oven. Immediately throw a few ice cubes on oven floor to create steam. Add more after 3 minutes and again after 6 minutes. Bake for a total of 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 20 minutes longer, until bread sounds hollow when the bottom is thumped. Turn oven off and let bread rest in hot oven 15 minutes, then remove and let cool.

The Levain–can be a “starter” for next time, not quite a sour dough starter, but a flavor booster. Put it in a covered jar with 1 ½ c warm water. Let it stand at room temperature for 12 hours and then refrigerate for up to 10 days. (Freeze for longer storage.)

Tags: Baking, General // 8 Comments »