Bread

I have never baked bread before in my life. The whole part about yeast and rising dough and kneading the dough just kind of made me nervous. It all sounded so very scientific and precise.

And we all know that I am not very scientific or precise. In fact, I am not the best baker at all. All that measuring and making sure it's cooked for the right amount of time just is not my forte.

However, that all changed a few weeks ago. I ran into a friend of mine and she started telling me about a bread cookbook. It's called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." She raved about it and went on and on about how good the bread was. Suddenly, I had visions of my kitchen smelling like Betty Crocker's and my family coming home to fresh, hot bread. It doesn't get any better than that - right?

So - I reserved the cookbook from the library and it came in and I got to work. I read the book and started with the most basic bread. The ingredients were: yeast, flour, coarse salt and water. Okay. Easy enough. Even I should be able to handle that!

Off to the store I went and gathered my ingredients. When I arrived home I got to work. All went pretty smoothly. I followed the directions which involved mixing the yeast, flour and water all together and then letting it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours, I was so happy to see that the dough indeed rose! Then I split the dough in half and formed it into a ball. I was so happy when the book told me that no kneading was necessasry! Anyway - I put my dough on a pizza stone and let it bake. I was nervous when I took it out of the oven. Would it be cooked all the way through? Would it taste good?

Indeed it did. We had warm bread that night with our dinner. It was delicious! And the best part was that the other half of the dough keeps for 3 weeks in the refrigerator. So - I made another loaf last night. Delicious!

Try it for yourself!