22. Bake a delicious loaf of bread
I made Pesto Bread. I wasn't able to follow the recipe excatly (no powdered milk!), and as a result my dough was a little messy and it took it a while to get doughy (rather than runny). But the girls at writing group assured me it was delicious, so I'm going to go ahead and cross it off the list.
When I added this to my list, I had hoped to make more of a habit out of making bread. Growing up the majority of bread in the house was homemade by my mom. For me there are few foods in the world that can compare to the warm heel of a crusty loaf of bread, a small sliver of butter melting in the center. It seems like a grown up thing to do, making bread. A sign that maybe I have my shit together.
It's little wonder that I haven't had the time or occasion to make much bread in the last ten months, since most days I feel like neither of those things. But this loaf was mostly a success, and nice with a warm bowl of tomato soup on a cold windy "summer" evening in San Francisco.
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:16PM | margosita | 6 Comments | Share Article tagged bread in I'm learning to cook!, goals
Reader Comments (6)
This looks amazing. I've wanted to learn how to make bread, too, but am intimidated by the whole yeast thing. Seems awfully fussy. (I tried to make pizza dough once and it didn't rise. So I had pizza crackers.) Any tips?
I don't really have many tips. I am not actually all that good at baking bread! But just give it a try! The yeast is isn't too tricky, as long as you are willing to give it the time to rise. My only suggestion would be to follow the directions closely, as there is a lot of chemistry to bread/baking. I added more flour to try to solve my not very doughy dough and I think that definitely made my bread thicker and it took longer to rise/bake.
Is the recipe you used online? Congrats on marking something off the list!
Yep! It's here! The recipe's version looks fluffier than mine, but if you like pesto (and who doesn't!?) you should try it out!
holy shit that looks so effing good!!
Pesto bread sounds fantastic! I've always had trouble getting bread to rise although my first job was in a place where we made our French bread. I think I was able to do it there because we refrigerated the bread before letting it rise the next day hmmmmm