Sunday, May 10, 2009

Crusty, Warm and Tasty

This past week I had Moussaka on the menu. Every time I've made this lovely recipe, I've wanted some nice crusty bread to go with it, but I always forget to get something together until it is too late. Well, this week, I moved around my menu so that I could make Pain a l'ancienne from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I don't think I've ever made a better choice.


Are you drooling yet? This bread fit every one of my ideals for a "nice, crusty bread" and it went perfectly with dinner.

And even better than that? It was actually easy. And I mean easy. Usually, I have a lot of trouble shaping my breads before baking them. But this bread requires no shaping. You cut a strip of dough and then stretch it out. No rolling. No pinching. No perfect shape required. All you have to do is follow Peter's detailed instructions (read them a few times before you begin to make sure you understand them) and the result is fabulous.

Side note: I did end up letting my dough "wake up" for about 5 hours, rather than the suggested 2-3, after taking it out of the refrigerator. Because of the way that my mixer works, I think I ended up putting a little too much water in the dough, and I think that may have affected my raising time.

3 comments:

Laurel said...

YUM!!! Unfotunately I can't spring clean and cook dinner at the same time. Now I'm hungry, good thing our fabulous culinary arts teacher down the hall gave me some of their warm fresh breadsticks to tide me over. They're good, but they don't look half as good as that bread of yours.

Unknown said...

Warm, crusty bread. *sniff* I want some. Maybe I'll get stationed up in Seattle, then I can visit y'all! =)

btw Hyjeauq = Adam
just in case you forgot ;)

Fromagette said...

If you do get stationed up here then you are definitely invited!