Pretty much the highest praise software can get is the comment, "it just works". Many different programs "work", but to "just work" means that what the program did was so fluid and intuitive that the user hardly noticed it working. Google's search engine "just works".
Recently I've gotten in to a new way of baking bread that "just works". You do not knead the bread. You mix up the ingredients in batches large enough to last a couple of weeks (takes 15 minutes, max). After it rises once, you toss it in the 'fridge. When you want bread, you hack a chunk of dough off and do whatever you want with it--including make really fancy artisan breads. I have done sandwich bread, flat breads, pizza crusts, crusty bread, and each one has worked amazingly well. It's nearly effortless, and fast enough to do on a whim after work.
I won't plagiarize the recipes here, but I'll put a link to the website: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. I got the New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes out of the library and liked it a lot. Pat and Samara got me the Healthy... version for Christmas and I like it too. The New... had a wider variety of recipes, so I'd start with that if you get one.
I never expected to be on a home-made bread kick, but I totally am. It's awesome. I know a 'real' bread baker will probably feel like a Unix user in 1995 (Dammit Gates, you're making this too easy, now everyone can do it!), but I'm not fussy--if it works it works.
PS Works for donuts, too! We did a small batch of the whole wheat challa recipe yesterday, and used it to make donuts for breakfast today. It would have been sugar free if we hadn't sprinkled with a little spiced sugar. Turns out cinnamon sugar is good with ground ginger and cloves. I.f I had ground cardamom I'd have added some of that, too
ReplyDeleteI've recently been into making bread as well. It's just too darned expensive to buy it here (the crappy loaves are $4). We never ate much bread in Tucson but we eat more of it here for some reason. It's so simple to make but I feel like a champ every time!
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