Baking Bread on Sunday

Many people I know are afraid to try baking bread because some baked goods like muffins and cakes are so finicky and prone to failure. Bread, however, is different. Bread is forgiving and flexible.

Andre Colin, a goat farmer and a country baker that I met this fall in France, who bakes 150 loaves every week to sell at the local market, explained to me that some bakers "like to make it sound like bread baking is really difficult, as though a good baker is God. But I am not God!"

Try baking a loaf of bread and having a slice of it while it's still warm, with a little butter and honey drizzled on it. You might not be God, but you'll feel like you're in heaven!

Here's my basic bread recipe:

Pour 1 pint of lukewarm water into a large ceramic mixing bowl. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of dry yeast. Stir to dissolve, then add 1 tablespoon of salt and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir until well mixed.

Add 1 cup of coarsely ground whole grain flour and stir until well mixed. Then, add 3 or 4 cups of finely ground white bread flour (high protein or "strong" flour, not pastry or cake flour) and stir until well mixed.


Put a 1/2 cup or so of flour on the counter and dump the dough onto it. Scrape the bits of dough and flour out of the mixing bowl and add it to the dough, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bowl, and set aside. Start kneading the bread by folding the dough in half towards you, pushing down on it with the heel of your hands, rotating it a turn, and repeating. Add flour a bit at a time until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer wet and sticky. Keep a little flour on the counter underneath the dough so it doesn't stick, although it is okay if there are some bits of dough clinging to your hands and the counter.


Drop the ball of dough into the bowl with the olive oil and then turn it over to coat the dough in oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and put in a warmish but not hot place to rise for about an hour. Prepare two bread pans by coating their insides with olive oil.


When the dough has doubled in size, dump it out onto the counter and deflate it by kneading it a few more times. Then divide it evenly into two pieces. Shape each piece into a loaf with your hands - doesn't matter how you do it - and drop one into each pan, cover with the towel, and let rise again for another 45 minutes or so, until they're just poofing up above the level of the sides of the breadpan. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius, and bake the bread about 45 minutes, until well browned. If you like, use a knife to decoratively slice the top of the risen loaves just before you put them in the oven. For a rustic look, sprinkle a little flour on the risen loaves before baking, too.


Remove from the pans and cool on a rack completely before storing in an airtight place.