Rosemary~Olive Oil Bread

I thought up a baking plan the other morning. It probably wasn't such an original thought since Nancy Silverton talks about setting up a bread baking schedule in her book, Breads from the La Brea Bakery. I must have subconsciously taken some of her advice then modified it to fit my soon to be put into effect baking plan. The book is starting to grow on me by the way. I baked 2 more loaves of bread from it, this time to even better results than I think I got the last time and I'm starting to understand where some of Silverton's insistence for control comes in, however, if you ask me, I think it's less about control and more about patience when it comes to baking artisanal style bread at home. I certainly don't have access to some of the equipment Silverton talks about and I’m certainly not as precise as Silverton is with temperatures and times, weights and measurements and yet, with patience and a little practice, I think it's ok to say I'm getting some pretty decent results. ack! I've wandered off on a tangent and haven't told you my baking plan yet, I better remedy that

Since summertime, particularly summertime in NYC is quite unpleasant and humid, making for less than ideal conditions for baking and since we won't be at the house every weekend, not that that matters since I'm still not used to baking there, I thought I'd do my bread baking here, now, at the apt. where I'm used to the kitchen, (tiny as it may be) and where my starter is already established. I'll mass bake now, not limiting myself to just breads but some cake, cookie and pie goodness too, since that stuff freezes pretty well I'll freeze it all, then, when summer rolls around, the Little Girl and I are free to roam around outside and not be tied to a very hot and humid kitchen. We can come home, light the oven and pop a frozen pie, savory tart, hunk of bread or whatever into the oven for a quick heat up and yumm, homebkaed goodness without the heat and hassle of baking it the same day. Good plan, no? Well, at least in theory it seems so.

I started “the plan” this past weekend, baking 2 loaves of Rosemary~ Olive Oil Bread from Silverton's book. I was quite pleased with the results. I got two nice, fragrant loaves of bread, tangy, but not sour with just the barest hint of olive oil flavor and a lovely scent of rosemary. Crusty outside but not too crusty since the olive oil helps soften the dough a bit, and a moist yet firm crumb on the inside. One of the loaves is already in the freezer and the other we'll eat this week. yee-ha!

I made a few observations while baking the bread that I'd like to share; I like Silverton's method of letting the dough rest for 20 minutes just after mixing and before kneading. I think the rest period helps relax the gluten in the dough and that makes it easier to knead. I like that although she uses a standing mixer in a lot of the recipes, if you are like me and don't own one, you can still make the bread in a bowl, mixing and kneading the dough the old fashioned way...with a little love and elbow grease. I like her aggressive approach to kneading bread; she suggests one-handed kneading, slamming down and turning, SLAMMING down and turning, SLAMMING DOWN AND TURNING! I think it helps get out the aggression and tension I sometimes feel, and yeah, I do believe that when you're angry or stressed that translates into your cooking, so it's important to be as stress free as you can be when you are in the kitchen. I like the way Silverton breaks the kneading into two parts, kneading first for 5 minutes, then, again, kneading salt into the dough, for another five minutes. I think the sea salt has less of a chance of dissolving this way, thereby ensuring that the bread has more flavor. maybe on that last point I'm talking out of my hat, I'm not sure I can put into words why I like that step precisely. I think those steps I just mentioned really contributed to my getting such a lovely proofed dough as you can see below.

I may have mentioned that I'm not using Silverton's starter because I have my own, and I'm quite happy with it. I would one day like to try hers though, I think it would be interesting to see how the different starters alter the flavor of the bread. I also discovered that I really need to turn the loaves halfway through baking or else, the baking is uneven. I end up with perfectly cooked bottoms on one side and burnt crustiness on the other side. Hmmm, (it's 2:30 am) I'm drifting in and out of sleep so I think I'll wrap this up by just saying I highly recommend Silverton's book if you're into baking breads from scratch. For the beginning baker, there’s a wealth of advice, and quidelines to help get the reader into baking bread the La Brea way, and that's worth the price of the book...I think.

Written by Deb on March 15, 2004 02:40 AM