Snow day French bread

Everyone was asking everyone what they were going to do during the big snowstorm. Like several others, I decided we (er...Matt) were going to bake. And I'd make the soup, and it would be a picture-perfect day, and we'd cuddle by the fire with our big bowls, and it would be oh-so-romantic. Well, the bread and soup got made, the fire is expensive to light (it's fake, and uses a lot of gas), and we were watching a Dexter marathon so grisly television shows featuring serial killers isn't really a mood inducer. Oh well....the meal was still fabulous.

Here's Matt's French bread, which isn't his at all, but found on All Recipes. You know when you go to a good restaurant and they give you fresh bread, warmed, with butter or dipping oil? This is it...but better. It's crunchy and flaky and soft and chewy. I think I'm in love.


French Bread

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tsps. salt
• 2 cups warm water
  
• 1 Tb. cornmeal
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tb. water
  

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Stir in 2 cups warm water, and beat until well blended using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead in enough flour to make a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Knead for about 8 to 10 minutes total. Shape into a ball. Place dough in a greased bowl, and turn once. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch dough down, and divide in half. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover, and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each half into large rectangle. Roll up, starting from a long side. Moisten edge with water and seal. Taper ends.
4. Grease a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Place loaves, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly beat the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water, and brush on. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise until nearly doubled, 35 to 40 minutes.
5. With a very sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts about 1/4 inch deep across top of each loaf. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 minutes. Brush again with egg white mixture. Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until bread tests done. If necessary, cover loosely with foil to prevent over browning. Remove from baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack.

Chilly outside, and....chilly inside (it's a wonder this dough had even risen).

Due to spatial constraints, we made one long loaf and a few shorties.

En garde, doggie!!!

Q: Can two people consume all this bread in one snowy weekend?
A: Do you really have to ask?

Hippie Bread

Soup by Trader Joe's, bread by ME! (Okay, US, fine.)

I love bread: when I’m having a flare I come downstairs in my sweats and toast a few slices and return upstairs to a bad sitcom and a belly-friendly snack. When I’m feeling well I dip in all kids of fabulous fats: olive oil with oregano, thyme and rosemary or butter, or spread peanut butter (not the fake, sugary stuff - yuck) for a protein fix. But, I am very fearful of bread baking. It’s too finicky. It takes too long. It requires careful measuring. But between the holidays I had nothing but time and a willing husband to help me conquer this uncharted culinary behemoth: the yeast bread. I dug out an old vegetarian cookbook of my mother’s: a total hippie relic that – no joke – talked about smoking “grass” as a sort of after-dinner aperitif. Oh, and it mentioned some snacks if you get the munchies. I nearly wet my pants because I’m not sure if my mother even held a joint in her life. I’ve since learned The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas kicked-off the veggie movement and is the vegetarian's first tome of all things delicious. Oh.

Anna (we’re on a first-name basis now) has a recipe for onion and herb bread that my mom notated was very good, so I told Matt to get to work. He made the bread that night and while it was absolutely delicious, it didn’t rise enough and was unusually dense. No worries, he said: he was just going to tweak something and we’d be off and running tomorrow. “Tomorrow” happened to be Sunday and like a good little yuppie (or should I say hippie in this case?) couple we decided to make an afternoon out of bread-baking (in between the Eagles game, of course). And who ever said romance was dead?

This time we used bread flour and instead of simply adding the yeast to warm water and then adding a bit of sugar later, we added the sugar immediately so the yeast could feed. It was like our own mini science experiment, except instead of two scientists we were two doofuses amazed at the bubbling yeasty liquid. The bread calls for onion, rosemary and dill and the results are FABULOUS. Really; it’s some damn fine bread. And it’s super quick, so, yes, you’ll have time to watch your Sunday afternoon football game (unfortunately….).

Hippie Bread with Onions and Herbs
(Not that kind of “herb”)

Makes 2 loaves:

• 1 cup milk
• 3 Tbs. sugar
• 2 tsps. salt
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 2 packages yeast (or, 1 Tb.)
• 1 cup warm water
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 tsp. dried dill
• 3 tsps. crushed, dried rosemary
  

Heat milk to almost a boil and add salt and butter. Then cool. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water and wait until yeast bubbles. Then add the cooled milk, herbs, and onion and stir. Add flour and mix well with a large, wooden spoon (or like us lazy fools, in the KitchenAid!).

When the batter is smooth, cover the bowl with a towel and place in the oven with the oven light on. Let the dough rise until triple in bulk--about 45 minutes. Stir down and beat vigorously for a few minutes (or knead with the dough hook in the mixer), then turn into a greased bread pan. Let stand an additional 15 minutes and then put into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for an hour.

We luckily had fresh dill on hand. And here Matt is crushing the rosemary.

Yummy in my tummy...and totally Crohn's safe! (Well, except for the onion...oops.)