I mentioned in a previous post that flour is my favourite ingredient. This weekend, I made bread. The recipe I used is from Cook's Illustrated and is their version of a recipe from the NY Times. The original article is by Mark Bittman (of Minimalist fame) based on a recipe developed by Jim Lachey of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. It became a bit of a sensation on the web (I had no idea how many crazed bread bakers there were out there) because it called for very wet dough that sits for a long first rise with no kneading. The bread is baked in a hot dutch oven creating a steam environment that produces the dark crust that you normally need a professional oven for. So of course Cook's did their number on the recipe. Among other things, they added beer and vinegar to the liquids to enhance the flavour. Their biggest innovation is the use of parchment to transfer the wet dough to the hot pot. For this particular loaf I added dried cranberry and toasted pecans. There really is nothing like home made bread. My kitchen smelled amazing all day yesterday. Fresh bread spoils quickly (read the label of a mass produced bread and all those ingredients that you can't pronounce are there to prevent spoilage) so I follow one of my aunt's suggestion to slice it up, wrap it well and freeze.
3 comments:
Looks amazing Pauline! I saw that Cook's recipe -- maybe I'll make it in another 10 years or so. Hope you enjoy it!
Interesting. I love the photo which you've been using on FB. What do you think generally of Cook's? We get Cook's Country and have had Cooks issues. I always find their discussion of the chemistry and experimentation fascinating, however ultimately I think I actually DON'T generally enjoy the results that much. We cook primarily from recipes and I find that I am a big fan of Williams-Sonoma (online) and that many of the MSLO Real Food recipes work nicely (except they tend to be error ridden). Anyway, curious if your results from Cooks are generally pleasing.
Edie,
I prefer baking to cooking and knowing the chemistry and science is pretty critical to that. Plus I always want to know why something happens. Cook's recipes tend to be written in much more detail than others. That really helps me because I'm not particularly adept at sequencing. In practice, I tend to tweak their recipes because they are rather obsessive. I enjoy their technique suggestions as much as the recipes. Bottom line for me is that I consider the mags a sort of 'cooking class' that helps me to better understand what I'm doing in the kitchen and to make the process more enjoyable.
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