Monday, June 23, 2008

It's Manna, I Tell Ya!

While sister has been one with the sewing machine (me? Hell, I just cleaned enough to get mine back on the table where it belongs!) and her oh-so-fresh veggies (I didn't try to get a CSA share until May, when they were all taken! Yeah, I'm an idiot.), I've been busy becoming one with the stove.

Fresh Baked Bread

Magical set of words, isn't it? Conjures up a yeasty, warm smell and the feel of crusty goodness surrounding pillowy softness slathered in butter.

I recently got this book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The subtitle is "The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking." Well, to this I say VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

The idea is that you make this giant pile of dough by merely mixing together water, yeast, salt and flour. Then it sits out for a couple of hours. Then it goes in the fridge overnight. Then you have enough dough to make 4 loaves. You just tear off a piece, form it into a ball with your hands. NO KNEADING! Let it sit for a bit, and bake it! I've made bread lots of times, but this is the easiest recipe ever. And the coolest thing? The book is FULL of recipes that follow the same plan, but for other types of breads and even for "sweets" like pecan sticky buns!

Dough mix in the "bucket"--this is after it had rising time of about 2 hours.

A loaf just out of the oven (I actually popped it back in for a few more minutes to give it more of a golden crust):

Oh, and I also got a hair and decided to make some flour tortillas this week:

Oh, and just to be extra annoying and make y'all hungry, I made tamales from scratch for the first time yesterday! Sorry the pic is so lousy, but my black countertops are just not conducive to taking fabulous foodie pics!

10 comments:

Dede Warren said...

good lord girl, come to my house and cook! that reminds me... I once paid the housekeeper to cook instead of clean... ohh, I love good homemade food! me? oh, I never learned to cook.

Jeff Hertzberg said...

Hi Sally-- I'm Jeff Hertzberg, one of the book's co-authors. Thanks for trying our method, I'm so glad it's working for you. Come visit us at www.artisanbreadinfive.com, where you can post questions into any "Comments" field, or into the "Bread Questions" field on the left side of the homepage.

Jeff Hertzberg
www.artisanbreadinfive.com

Sherry said...

Okay Tiff, you've convinced me about this bread now -- it looks amazing!!!! Even I can do this!!! And how cool is this?!? One of the co-authors has left you a comment!! Woo hoo!!

Lynn said...

You are such a good girl Tiff, I couldn't be bothered with all that, but I will pass on the name of that book to my hubby, he wants to try his hand at making bread. He just bought a huge book called The Bread Bible, but I don't see any bread yet:)

Ruth Welter said...

tiffani, that bread looks delicious...this post has most certainly made me hungry. : )

Susan and Tracy aka Muriel and Mavis said...

STOP IT WITH THE FOODAGE!!

;)

Get over here and bring me tamales. Stat.

Cindy@Cutepinkstuff said...

Manna, yora makin' me hungry! Yum, yum! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Stink Bone Jones said...

Wow Tiff, I'm impressed! You look like you've been on a baking roll. You are so brave to try out baking bread. I think I'm too scared. You even got the co-author of your book to visit your blog?

Mrs.Kwitty said...

LOL---that bread sounds too good to be true!! I have attempted to make bread from scratch before and it never really turned out good enough to merit all that work! But this method sounds really interesting....... It certainly looks good--and how is the taste?? Does it taste like sourdough?

I love that the book's coauthor popped by for a visit! Cool.

Your tortillas and tamales look excellent too.

Smiles, Karen

LazyTcrochet said...

Oooh a comment from the author too! sweet!
This is all right up my alley. Although I've never had a tamale...or made one for that matter. I just posted some fresh strawberry shortcake over on my blog too ; )