This weekend is the first weekend I’ve ever made bread.  The good news is that I came up with some pretty decent bread.  The bad news is that it took more than one try!

I used a few different sources for tips and hints, but ended up using the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, Breads From The Hearth: Baguettes and Ciabatta.  The online ‘class’ makes it pretty easy to make the breads, and, if I’d followed the instructions the first time, would have had better results with the first batch.

I learned two things right away, though.  First, when it says to use the poolish (basically the starter) within 12-16 hours, do so.  I let it go too long and ended up with problems, mostly in dough that didn’t rise enough, I think.  The dough was much stickier when I didn’t use the poolish on time.  It also came across as a bit salty.  Second, when using a standing mixer, it seems to work better with double the recipe instead of the regular, as there seems to be a critical mass with which the mixer does better.

The first picture here is the first loaf of bread I ever made.  It didn’t look too horrible, and it tasted ok, but just wasn’t quite there.

I wanted to use bread for the class Mark and I are teaching on tailgating tomorrow, so I though I’d just double the recipe and hope for the best.  Last night, I made a double batch of the poolish at about 10 pm, and I used it for a double batch of dough at about 10 am this morning, right at the 12 hours suggested for the poolish.

After mixing the dough and letting it rest for 20 minutes, I put on the kneading hook and let it rip.  The difference was apparent almost immediately that this dough was much better than the day before.  The dough looked less ‘rustic’ after it had time to rise, and just felt more resilient. 

Since it was a double recipe, I figured on making several baguettes.  I used my bencher to roughly measure out 6 semi-equal portions.  Five of them, I shaped into baguettes and set on flour sack cloths to rise again.
I took the last portion and decided to try making a fougasse, which is the french version of focaccia bread.  I laid out the dough in a rough square, then took a sharp knife and made a long diagonal cut, but not all the way through.  I think made 3 smaller cuts to each side of the first cut, fanning out the cuts.  I put a bit of rosemary on the bread, then baked it for about 12 minutes or so.

The result was pretty darn good.  My wife even liked, it, though I think next time, I will crush up the rosemary a bit more.  It looks kind of impressive, I think, though!

The other five loaves turned out pretty decent, too, though the top didn’t brown quite as much as I wanted it to do.  I think I may try baking on convection/bake next time.

The loaves are going to be used for pulled pork sandwiches; I’ll cut each loaf into five pieces, then slit them to pile up pork for our class tomorrow.  I think it’s a it nicer touch then standard white bread buns.

Oh, and one more thing I learned… Don’t be afraid to cut into the dough when making cuts to allow the crust to expand.  I was timid, and the cuts weren’t big enough to really open up as much as I’d like them to do.