Bread, bread, and more bread.

For some reason I have had a huge desire to become great at baking bread. I've really wanted to perfect the art - Not just know how to follow the recipe, but to know that putting water in the oven along with the bread makes the crust more crispy, or knowing to let the yeast sit until it is completely dissolved before I add it to the oil, sugar, and salt, even knowing that patience in letting the dough rise long enough is always worth it in the end. So a 1 1/2 years ago I made my first loaf of French bread and this is how it turned out:


Not bad looking, but it just didn't taste right. It tasted too flour-y and was very thick. Michael was very nice about it and told me he loved it, but for the most part, it didn't taste anything like the French bread he actually had in France. My problem is that I always thought that the bread isn't supposed to be sticky anymore after I've mixed it all together so I kept adding and adding flour, when really the extra flour just makes the bread heavy. So over the past few months I've searched and searched for a recipe that would taste amazing and look good, and have also done a lot of reading on how to make the bread the right consistency: fluffy, a little crisp on the outside, will go along with anything or will taste great plain. And this is what I've come up with:

The glazed look on the crust is a coat of egg whites I added before I let it rise for the last time.

My mother-in-law (who tells me that she hardly ever eats bread) has now asked me to make it every time I come over for a Sunday dinner. Isn't she nice? I have a long way to go still because all I can make is French bread and I'm still learning the tricks of that trade. But, my next journey is finding a good Sandwich bread recipe . . . Wish me luck on my continued adventures in the world of bread.