You know how I usually post about cooking school the day after cooking school?
Have you noticed that last week didn’t get a post?? {It’s okay if you’re not following along that closely, just go with me on this one, will ‘ya.}
Well, there’s a very good reason.
Last Thursday was “Artisan Bread” day and we made three loaves of bread in 4 hours!
I know it doesn’t sound like a lot when I put it that way, but when you consider that each loaf had to be kneaded at least twice, and the challah took 45 minutes to get those amazingly delicious strings that I LOVE… well, one yoga class, one massage and a bottle of Advil later and I’m still sore to the touch.
I attempted a 4-braid challah. Looks wonky. Tastes AMAZING!
It took me about 3 hours to make the challah with all of the rest time, and it took my family 20 minutes to devour it.
Seriously!
See those threads? Those gorgeous strings of gluten? Those things take WORK to get. 45 minutes of work, to be precise.
But it was amazing! And I’m already getting requests from my girls to make it again. Hopefully I’ll be able to life my arms on Thursday so we can have something for the weekend.
Challah “Holla!” was hard work.
But the homemade rustic bread?
That one was simple.
And creates such a large loaf that:
- Next time I will make 2 loaves and either give one away or freeze it
- I’ve been getting creative with the stale bread and my grill (more on this in the days to come)
homemade rustic bread
This is a good, basic, artisan bread. Nothing fancy here. Just down to earth bread making.
Now all you need are about 20 recipes that use stale bread so you can savor every last crumb.
{deena}
Ingredients
- SPONGE:
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (about 80 degrees)
- 4 ounces bread flour
- DOUGH:
- 20 ounces bread flour, approximately
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (about 80 degrees)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- cornmeal for sprinkling
Instructions
- Create the sponge by dissolving the yeast and 4 ounces of flour into the warm water. Cover and let rest at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours (in refrigerator).
- In a large bowl, combine the sponge, remaining flour, water and honey. Knead until a wet dough comes together.
- Add salt during the last 3 minutes of kneading.
- Place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled.
- Lightly flour hands and work surface. Turn out dough and knead lightly. Form into a ball and place on a cornmeal-dusted baking tray.
- Flour the top of the bread, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise - again - until doubled. Around 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Place a small pan of water on the bottom of the oven (to ensure steam during the baking process).
- Place baking tray with bread on the lowest rack and bake for 35-40 minutes until the crust is very dark brown and the internal temperature is 210 degrees.
- Cool to room temperature before slicing.
- Enjoy!
Sure, I may be obsessed with food, but I'm so much more than that. I'm a cook, a mom, a hostess and a list maker.
Would you send or post the challah recipe???
Angela… I’m working on getting a post out in the next week or two. Stay tuned!
Thank you! I love that you can take these awesome classes and I can learn from you.
Glad to help.
I’m looking forward to the challah recipe too!
I might try this rustic loaf tomorrow! It looks simple and beautiful. You’ve definitely got a knack for bread-baking!
[...] good thing about making your own bread is that you have delicious, good-for-you fresh bread. The bad news is that the bread gets stale in [...]
I can’t wait to try this recipe.
[...] Homemade Rustic Bread. [...]