I've been baking all my breads for a few years, ever since I took an early retirement some nine or ten years ago. (I'm a lucky girl!) Anyway, while I've made a whole lot of doorstop loaves along the way but as I continued to practice, my skill and abilities rose and breads aren't the challenge they once were.
Well, that's not completely true. There was one type of bread that escaped my grasp. The lovely artisan breads that have those big, giant air holes. Oh, I could make the dough and the flavors were there, the crust had a nice crunch....but it was the ability to attain the holes! Why no holes, bread?? WHY!?!!
But I didn't quit. I read. I studied. I read some more then I thought about it again. Finally, after much thought and reading, between Field's
The Italian Baker and Reinhart's
Artisan Breads Every Day, I did a little combining of recipes and techniques
that, after all these years of elusive results, the much anticipated holes finally became a reality!
I a happy girl!
#bread
