Julie & Artisan Bread - Week 4 - Ciabatta

We made some ciabatta bread (page 37) tonight for dinner and made it into a margarita pizza. I'm amazed how the exact same dough baked in several different shapes will take on the form of many different breads. The ciabatta is more of a flat bread with lots of bubbles inside. When you roll out the dough you want to make it 3/4 of an inch thick, any more and it will be like pita bread.

Since we were making a pizza we decided to add some olive oil and italian seasonings to the surface of the dough.

After the dough cooled down a bit we added fresh basil, tomato, and mozzarella... yumm!!

Julie & Artisan Bread - Week 3 - Batard

A batard loaf is similar to a baguette, except it's wider in the middle and tapered on the edges and is known for it's crumb rather then it's crisp caramelized crust. (page36) This bread tasted pretty much like a baguette, but is an easier loaf to make sandwiches with. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo of it before we ate it.

Julie & Artisan Bread - Week 1 - Baguette

Since I had the day off yesterday, I made the boule dough (Artisan free-form loaf) in the afternoon, so that I could bake my bread in the evening when my husband got off work. I mixed it up in one of my plastic cambros with a wooden spoon and let it sit for 2 hours to let it rise.

Once it had filled the container I made sure that the lid was on (not air-tight) and stuck it in the refrigerator it for 3 hours so that it's easier to work with. With enough dough now to make 4 loafs that will last up to 2 weeks, I won't have to make another batch for a few days.

The next step was to form a loaf for a Baguette by taking a grapefruit sized piece of dough from the cambro and forming it into a 2" thick log.

Since a traditional baguette doesn't have flour on top I had to brush on come water before making slits with my bread knife.

Then I slid it off on a hot pizza stone in the oven and 25 minutes later we had fresh baked bread.

I have to say, this loaf by far this was the best bread I have EVER made. The bread was light and fluffy and had a great taste even before I added any butter or cheese on top. I can't wait to get started on my next loaf!

Julie & Artisan Bread?

I have always wanted to learn how to make really good bread from scratch. Whenever I want fresh bread I have always to run to the store... but wouldn't it be great to just whip up a pizza crust or dinner rolls to complete a meal from the comfort of your own home?

In the early married years, and I was not working, this kind of dream might have actually been possible... had it not been for my extremely awful bread making abilities! Now that I'm working part time I definitely have a lot less time to devote to perfecting this skill, and it is becoming less and less of a possibility.

Until I found Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which is the perfect method for making bread when you only have a little bit of time to devote to bread making. Rather then the traditional way; which requires a lot of time proofing, kneading, covering and rising, punching down and letting double; you start with a wetter dough that will rise on it's own, and store several loaves worth in the fridge at a time. You CAN have bread whenever you want it.

I can't wait to start making bread! I can start up our Wednesday night bread and cheese night again, except instead of store bought breads I'm going to make it from home! Inspired by the Julie & Julia movie & blog, I am going to work through this cook book and make a new recipe for every Wednesday night. I'll be posting about our findings about each recipe.

One of our favorite Lost Characters Jorge Garcia (Hurley) has also gotten into the art of bread making.