I’ve Been Baking Bread!!!
Posted on | December 30, 2008 | No Comments | Share!!
So in case there was any doubt who was the true bread maker in this family, you can plainly see that it’s me!
Me presenting my first humble entry into the timeless skill of bread making...
Well, at least of the yeast variety anyways! 
This last year has been a real doozy for a million different reasons but both Mel and I made an agreement that when things calmed down a little bit, we would teach ourselves another skill that would take us one more step towards total self sufficiency! So Mel said she’d learn to make cheese and I’d always wanted to make my own bread from scratch.
It was set! All we needed was for life to slow down a little. And, eventually, it somehow did.
So I set out to find a way to make bread from scratch that wasn’t terribly time consuming but was still healthier than store bought and cheaper! Luckily it didn’t take terribly long. A while back Mel and I had both remembered reading about this book that taught a quick and easy way to make artisan style bread, but it had gotten lost in our infinite travels online. Anyways, after some research and a little luck we found the book online and then on the shelf at our next Borders run.
Here it is:
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg (Author), Zoe Francois (Author)
Here’s the link to it on Amazon (Borders has it as well but their site was down so no linky-linky for them!).
Fast forward a month and I’ve baked 8 loaves from the “master recipe” and gave a shot at a wheat sandwich bread as well (I’m pretty sure I botched it. Something about it just isn’t… right. But I definitely know where I made an error!). The “master…” loaves have been delicious and it’s been a real treat to get the hang of it to the point that we have fresh baked bread for dinner when we want to. It does require some planning, but not very much at all. And besides, the results are totally worth it!
So now we don’t have to purchase as much, or any bread from the store and Mel’s made delicious Paneer from scratch 4 times now!
Baby steps of course, but definite steps to our future goals nonetheless!
I encourage you guys to check out the book above. It’s well written, very easy to follow and making your own bread is pretty damn infectious!
Try it! You’ll see!
