Since we decided to bake all of our own bread in 2010, I’ve learned several things along the way. First, there’s nothing that beats the taste of home baked bread! Even the worst loaf of homemade bread usually tastes better than anything store bought, unless you happen to have an artisan bakery next door (which we don’t). I knew that already, because I’ve been baking bread for a long time.
And second, I learned it’s not really all that hard to do, with a little effort and some planning. Along those lines, we’re going to try and make it even easier for 2011 by making more no-knead bread. This year my wife has been baking a lot of bread using recipes from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes (HB in Five). One hallmark of these recipes is a relatively wet (well-hydrated), no-knead dough that you can keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
So to make things easier in 2011 we’re going to try and keep dough in the refrigerator at all times. That way, we can pinch off some dough and bake it on pretty short notice whenever we need fresh bread. This weekend I mixed up a batch of 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil dough. After mixing, I let it sit out on the counter for about two hours, then put it in the frig to hang out until we need it.
whole wheat bread dough
Tonight I’m going to make Broccoli Buttermilk Soup, and some sort of fresh baked bread would sure be nice to go along with it. Last week my wife baked a couple of batches of whole wheat Grissini (breadsticks) to go with soup, and we really loved them!
whole wheat Grissini
We might make them again tonight, but I’ve got another idea. I’m going to put my head together with my wife and see what she thinks about baking some Garlic-Studded Baguettes. That sounds like a good match to go with the relatively mild broccoli soup. I’ll be sure and take some photos of whatever we decide!