April 16, 2010

Let's Talk About Food Baby

Sunday-Chicken scampi, salad and bread (more on that later)
Tuesday-Pan roasted pork chops, oven roasted potatoes and salad

Post Easter, we came into possession of a rather large bag of potatoes, so I'm trying to get through that at a faster rate than we normally have them. I'm planning on making potato cakes from the March Cooking Light tomorrow for my new recipe.

Baking
My new baking recipe, as referenced above, was Ena's super easy artisan bread. It is really astounding. You barely have to do anything and at the end of it all, you end up with a loaf of bread that looks and tastes like it came from a bakery. We've been super busy this week, so I haven't had a chance to bake more, but I'm planning on doing so this weekend.

Here's her recipe, but I'm posting the directions here so you can see how easy it is. Go to her site to see how good the bread looks!

Artisan bread
3 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons active yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons sea salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
a large plastic tub with lid

The ingredients above are mixed until you have wet dough. Let it rise for 2 hours in the covered plastic tub. You will have enough dough for many loaves - you can keep it in your fridge for up to 14 days.

Once the dough is ready, take a grapefruit-sized chunk, and mold it into a nice ball - no kneading necessary. Pour some corn flour (I used corn meal) on a pizza sheet and place your dough ball on top of it. Let rise at room temperature for an additional 40 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Make sure you cut a few lines into your loaf with a serrated knife. Put in the oven and let bake for 30 minutes.

2 comments:

camby said...

mmm, i've been wanting to get that artisan bread cookbook. i love the idea that the dough is all made ahead of time and lasts for two weeks! i'll be trying this one.

beartifix said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Amanda! I am glad you liked the bread. It's now my kitchen staple.