Ok. This was on the plan for the weekend. I got a copy of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," by Peter Reinhart for my birthday and I've been itching to try one of the recipes from this book since. Reinhart is a James Beard Award winner so I figured I can't go wrong. I won't go into the recipe much since its rather involved and there's a a lot of technique-type details that require photos from his book to really get a grasp of.
The process was kind of fun but it was also a little more difficult than some of the breads I've made. This may have contributed to the new burn on my left hand, but that might also have been because I'm a little bit stupid and careless. Verdict's still out on that one.
The loaves looked great. They smelled amazing. The whole damn house smelled like a bakery after they'd be in the oven for about 10 minute. The crust was a great combination of crunchy and soft, a little bit like the soft sided Italian bread we used to get up in Syracuse. Sadly, when I cut into the first loaf, I didn't find the big holes I was hoping to find. I'm not sure exactly where I went wrong, but the crumb was pretty tight. It's not a dense bread by any means, though. I actually really like the soft, light texture. But it's not ciabatta. At least I don't think so. After I cut a few more slices I started to see some bigger holes, but still nothing like was I was expecting. I did make three loaves though, so maybe one will turn out be be what I was expecting. If not, they definitely deserve a repeat attempt.
No comments:
Post a Comment