Ian's Bread Advice

All right. So, to be frank, it's been awhile -- a *long* while -- since I've made bread. However, I should be able to give you the gist of what I'd do. Generally you want a 2:1 ratio of flour to water, but first start with that water in a mixing bowl and make sure it's warm. Not hot, just pleasantly warm. Next, add sugar. Typically about a tablespoon per cup of water you're using. This isn't to sweeten the bread so much as it is to feed the yeast. Swirl things so that the sugar dissolves and is distributed through the solution.

Add yeast. I've always kept a jar of it in my fridge, so it isn't in measured sachets, and I typically would find that I add between a teaspoon and a tablespoon -- enough so that there's a nice fine layer across the surface of your water. Let sit for approx. 10-minutes or until the yeast has turned into a nice froth.

Now you add your flour. Sometimes it can be handy to add about 80% of it, mix it, and then the remainder. Before mixing it however, go ahead and add about 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of water you used -- this can be fudged up or down depending on taste, however, wholly salt-less bread tends to taste under-baked. Add your seasonings as you see fit. This is, of course, something to do to taste. If you add any wet ingredients (e.g. minced garlic from Costco) you'll have to omit some of the water or add more flour. Eggs can be added to make the bread fluffier, though they are another especially wet ingredient.

Mix it all up. Adding oil (about a tablespoon or so per cup of water you used) can help enhance flavor and make it so the dough does not stick to your hands, since I would just plunge my fingers in and incorporate things in that manner -- of course, a food processor with a dough blade works well, too. Now set the dough aside in its mixing bowl somewhere warm-ish. If it's too warm or particularly dry, a damp paper towel put across the bowl/dough helps.

Let it rise. You're looking to see it double in volume -- make sure you picked the size of your mixing bowl appropriately. This could take an hour, could take four, you could pop it into the fridge and let it rise overnight. Once it does, you're going to punch it down, knead it some more, and that's when I like to split it into loaf portions and place it on baking sheets that have been liberally sprinkled with cornmeal to prevent the finished product from sticking to the pan. Then you're going to let it rise again, this time only for about an hour, maybe two, looking to see that it puffs up a bit on the pan.

Set the oven to 350. Sometimes it helps to score the tops of the loaves with a knife perpendicular or at an angle -- this helps to prevent the crust cracking as it bakes and expands in size -- but it's not truly necessary unless you're going for a particular look. I like to wet the top of the loaf, too, and sprinkle coarse salt to give the crust an extra kick. Wetting it helps the salt stick, and doing so with oil will make the crust a little chewier, while water will make it a bit crunchier. Even without adding the salt, wetting can give you your choice of textures.

Bake time is often between 30-minutes to a bit over an hour. It depends on a tremendous number of factors, but especially the size of each loaf and whether it's thin like a baguette, or more like something you'd use for a bread bowl. Set a timer for a half-hour and just expect to be checking on it thereafter. One trick to know if the loaf is done is if you turn it over and tap on its base, it should make a nice hollow drumming sound. Obviously seeing its surface turn a lovely golden brown is a good indication, too.

Anyhoo, that's about all there is to it.