I am about ready to toss all my cookbooks and just rely on my Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa At Home book. Not really. But I do have to say every single thing I have ever made from the book has turned out splendidly.
This morning I tried my hand at bread baking. I have a bread machine but since they aren’t enjoying the same popularity they did about 10 years ago it’s hard to find much variety in the choices of mixes available. Of course if I had the manual I could bake a loaf from scratch ingredients.
I can’t quite figure out how to use the bread machine when there is anything other than the water, yeast and flour mixture. Ina’s recipe for Honey White Bread calls for salt, sugar, honey, egg yolks and an egg white wash, in addition to the three standard bread machine ingredients.
So I figured I would just do it the old fashioned way. If old fashioned means relying entirely on one’s KitchenAid mixer to do all the kneading.
Look! It’s poofing up! Which is more than I can say about the pizza dough I tried to make last week (note conspicuous absence of any posting about THAT experiment). The reason I have the rising dough sitting on top of an upside down bowl is because my range has heat lamps but the item being kept warm really needs to be up a little higher.
We keep our house on the cool side so it helps the rising process to raise the temperature in the vicinity of the bowl a wee bit.
It was quite weird to feel the dough – it was warm and alive feeling (yeasties doing their work). This particular recipe makes two loaves so I divided the dough into two prepared loaf pans.
Look in the background – that’s my new Russell Hobbs electric tea kettle that Rick gave me for my birthday. My life is now complete. No more microwaving my tea water.
Don’t look in the background at all the other crap on the counter. It’s getting kind of busy looking back there.
The recipe says to cool completely before slicing but in the interest of full blogging disclosure (and the fact it is lunchtime) I decided to throw caution to the wind and slice into it while it was still warm.
Mmm. Nice and dense, but not heavy. Good flavor. Can’t wait to try it toasted.
Oh my ggodness I can practically smell that bread.
MMmm I can smell it from here. I grew up on homemade bread, didn’t like it, longed for Wonder Bread like all the other kids. In college I made bread for spending money sometimes, using my mom’s old
fleishman’s Margerine cookbook. I’ve tried other recipes but those in the book always seem the best to me.
Your bread looks beautiful. Everything a bread should be.
Happy Birthday for the 1st….looks like you and the girls had a great day out. Your bread looks divine..I grew up on a farm and Mum made all the bread and other yeasty things like buns etc…I like to make it occasionally but then I have to eat it – fresh, toasted, in any way shape or form….which then makes my shape or form look out of shape and form……..!
I have all of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and love them! It’s going to be rainy and cool here in Virginia this weekend and I’m going to have to make bread! It looks delicious!
Dana
I’d love a piece of that warm bread right now with my diet coke! I have a bread machine, too, so I think I’ll go make some….!
There is nothing like a home-made loaf of bread. I make a loaf every-day xoxoxo Clarice
I love homemade bread and I love my kitchenAid mixer. Why knead when the machine can do it for you?? My latest bread I have been making is foccacia. We have all the herbs in our garden so it is a cinch to make. Great for sandwiches too!