artisan bread - part two

Okay, as promised, round two of the bread experiment...and it's a success!! As of the last post, I was waiting patiently for the bread to finish rising, so that I could hack it up, and bake it. It looked something like this:

Once it's risen for at least two hours (apparently up to 5, or even overnight is okay/better, so whatever floats your boat), and then collapsed - I "helped" mine by dropping the mixing bowl, whoops - you take the dough and the bowl it's in, cover it (I just put loose plastic wrap over it, so gasses could get out), and put it in the fridge. You can leave it in there for up to two weeks, and just hack off the bits you want to make one loaf at a time - perfect, because I don't have the patience usually to wait for several hours for bread to rise!

I hacked off my loaf, about the size of a softball, and sort of kneaded it mid-air. Hold it in your hands and smooth the top, and tuck the excess underneath - kind of like a botched facelift. Put it onto an upside-down baking pan dusted with cornmeal, cover it up with a cloth (a slightly damp cloth is best, according to my mom), and leave it in a warm place for at least half an hour, up to 1 1/2 hours. It won't rise a ton, but it will get a bit bigger.

Before:

After:

That yellowy stuff? Is cornmeal. I honestly didn't know what it was until I bought it. Then I realised that's the same stuff that's on the bottom of bagels...just blew your mind too, didn't it? Thought so.
About 20 minutes before you're ready to put the bread in the oven, preheat it to 450˚ F. Put one rack at the top and one in the middle of the oven. On the top rack, put a shallow pan (I used a round cake pan) and on the middle rack put an upside-down cookie sheet. (Sorry for the horrific photo, it's a trick and a half getting a decent one of the inside of my oven!)

Once the oven's ready to go, uncover your little bread buddy and dust some extra flour on top, then use a serrated knife to slice into the top - I prefer either x's or three lines, but do whatever design you'd like using 2-4 slashes. It comes out pretty crispy, so if you want a bit of a softer crust, brush it with a bit of melted butter or olive oil (I've only used olive oil because I'm too lazy to melt butter on the stove). Now that it's all ready, transfer it from the sheet it's on to the one in the oven. In the shallow pan, put about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water (to make steam), and close up the oven.

Bake that puppy for about 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and it sounds hollow when you knock on it - be careful not to burn your knuckles like I did!

Of course, I was too excited for fresh bread, and forgot to take a photo of the loaf as a whole, but here it is all sliced up and buttered...mmm!

And one last set of parting shots of  the delicious soup we had it with last night - the most gorgeous minestrone ever, made by the boy himself!

Jealous? Get out there and make some! I brought a chunk of dough over to my mom's this morning, to bake for her, and it was as good as - if not better than - last night! I don't know that this bread will last for two weeks, because we'll probably demolish it before then, but it's definitely handy! Enjoy!

c.