Bread!

I HAVE MADE BREAD**said in the voice of Tom Hanks from Castaway alla "I have made fire!**

Just baked my first loaf of bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

My sister-in-law Emily, got me this book for Christmas and I've been aching to try it out. Thank goodness for three snow-days to bake! I decided to make the Light Whole Wheat Loaf (as in it has a light amount of wheat not that's light in calories although it's not super caloric but it is bread... but anyways).

I only remembered half way through the process to actually take pictures (thanks hubby for reminding me).

Here's the halfbaked in the oven shot (ew gross dirty oven door, sorry!).

The bread was remarkably easy to make. No kneading or machines required. I just put all the ingredients in a big bowl and stirred until combined, let rise for 2 hours, then into the fridge to bake at my leisure.

Dough in the fridge.

I, of course, wanted to actually bake a loaf today so I pulled out about a quarter of the dough (the recipe I choose made 4 small loaves), shaped it lightly, let it rise one more time (for about 40 minutes). Into the oven on my handy pizza/bread stone with a steam bath underneath (just my broiler pan with a cup of water) and voila! Home made bread!

Delicious! Nice crispy crust and soft moist crumb inside. Would be great for grilled cheese or a sandwich. YUM!