My first loaf of french bread
I have never made a loaf of bread in the oven until now. Heck I had never used a stand mixer till today to whip up 2 egg whites to go into the bread. The dough was very sticky so I had to add flour on my counter and hands quite a bit. I was able to make a round ball of dough I was so excited. Then I patted it to a rectangle and pulled the ends and folded them in and sealed the edges then did it all over again about 3 times. The dough just seemed limp but it came up when I pressed a finger into it. Finally I let it rest in a WAY to floured basket with a linen dish towel in it. (I scraped a lot of flour off after baking with a steak knife. I forgot that I should scrape it before baking.) It is a bit dense and not as airy as I thought it should be. But oh it tastes so good.
reminds me of my first loaf of French Bread... was so fun to make... yea, the first loaf you make tastes the best
Did you use a recipe out of a cookbook?
I used a recipe from Beth Hensperger The bread lovers Bread machine cookbook. I set the bread machine to dough and when it was done I took it out shaped it and baked it. I just tried to make a loaf of white bread in the machine but the dough looked like soup. I was just going to let the bread bake in the machine. I had to add so much more flour to get it to look like bread dough. So I turned the machine onto dough again and will bake in the oven. I will be up awhile. That's ok I have to feed my sourdough starter anyway LOL.
There is nothing like homemade bread!
I cut the loaf in half and froze half so I won't eat it all. I live alone so I freeze a lot of what I make. It feels so wrong to freeze it but I can't eat all I like to bake LOL
I freeze bread too when it looks like we aren't going through it fast enough or when I have to bake earlier than planned for my favourite soup kitchen.
I just found this article about freezing bread cookies etc both unbaked and baked. http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2015/02/ultimate-guide-freezing-bread-dough-baked-goods/
Hmmm I may just have to use that leftover piece of parchment paper tomorrow. I have a friend that wants french bread. I am glad I bought 10 lb. of flour yesterday.