Great Taste Coaster

First, let me just say that Mark Bittman rocks. If you don’t yet own How To Cook Everything, go directly to Amazon, order it, and come back when you are done. It’s the best cooking investment you’ll ever make.

Done? OK, let’s continue.

After reading about Nate’s bread baking exploits I decided I had to try to make some bread myself. So I of course opened up How To Cook Everything to the bread section, read the general information, and decided to try the Easiest and Best French Bread recipe. There was something attractive about the fact that it was a recipe for the most simple of yeast breads… flour, water, salt, yeast. Nothing more.

I’m fortunate enough to have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer with a bread hook attachment, so that made the whole process a lot easier. I basically threw the ingredients in the mixing bowl, turned it on until the dough started to pull away from the sides and form a solid, sticky lump. I ended up making four loaves, allowing them to proof (i.e. “rise”) anywhere from three to five hours. After slicing the tops and baking them for 45 minutes, I ended up with four loaves of amazingly good bread.

With a tough, thick crust and soft but slightly chewy interior, they are very similar in crust and crumb to the French baguettes served on the side at Panera Bread. Not having baguette pans, however, I baked boules instead.

Based on advice from Mr. Bittman, I used a small spray bottle to add water/steam to the oven during the initial 10 minutes of baking. Apparently steam is the secret ingredient to end up with that perfect, crusty bread that I love so much.

Easiest and Best French Bread

1 pound bread flour (I used KA bread flour with 4% protein)
2 tsp salt (kosher)
1 tsp Fleischmann’s RapidRise Yeast
1.5 cups of water (or a tiny bit less)

Place half of flour (~0.5 lb), yeast, salt, and water in the mixing bowl and turn the stand mixer on low with bread hook attachment. Add other half of flour until the mixture has become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove from mixer.

Form the boule (round loaf) by shaping the dough into a ball, using as little flour as possible. Use your hands/fingers to work your way around the ball, tucking the dough down and inward into itself and stretching the top. When the top is smooth, pinch the bottom together to seal it and place in a towel-lined basket (with a bit of flour) seam-side up.

Allow to rise for 2-6 hours. Preheat oven with pizza/bread stone to 450° 30-minute prior to baking.

Spray water into oven to create steam and slide bread into oven (seam-side down). I first used the towel in the basket to flip the bread seam-side down onto a non-stick cookie sheet, and then used that to slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Spray water onto the sides of the oven a few more times during the first 10 minutes of baking to form more steam.

After 20 minutes of baking, reduce heat to 350° and continue baking until the crust is golden brown.