Since I’ve talked about how my brewing journey started, it only seems right to share the story of my bread making next.
The origin does not stem as far back as my beer habit. In fact, it can be traced back to Christmas, 2020. It was the height of lockdown and my wife and I had moved house just before the dreaded ‘Rona’ stopped the world in its tracks.
Some friends of ours had been sending photos of their homemade focaccia, which to be fair looked very appetising. This encourage my wife to give it a go and I’ll never forget devouring it, fresh from the oven whilst watching the Christmas special of the Crystal Maze. if you have never seen it, you should check it out. Or at the very least, just watch episode 4 of season 1 of the reboot with Richard Ayoade if you enjoy watching unfit people attempting physical activities (with hilarious outcomes).
Anyway, fast forward about 4 years and out of nowhere, I had a hankering for that same, tasty bread and decided to give it a go. I bout a pre-mix pack, followed the instructions and hey presto, I had some very edible, if slightly over salted, focaccia. Clearly I am a natural baker!
Spurred on by this success, I figured I would be equally adept at making other breads. So I bought a different pre-mix pack. This time, it was a white loaf with cheese and sun dried tomato (if I recall correctly). Again this was a runaway success. Who needs years of experience to be a master baker!
Actually, if I’m honest, the bread was alright. Kind of. Well it really just tasted like a pizza base.
Undeterred, I thought lets just try making a white loaf. A simple cornerstone of diets all over the world.
I looked up various recipes and eventually stumbled across a ‘no-knead bread’ one. Given some of the descriptions of how to knead the dough and knowing when it was ready to bake, I figured that not having to do that bit would make it easier.
Researching more, many of the recipes call for the use of a ‘Dutch Oven’. Something I did not own. But luckily, in the dark corners of the Web, someone demonstrated that it could be done without. Instead, i would be using an upside-down handle-less pan.
I mixed all the ingredients as instructed, performed the dough folds at half hourly intervals, got the oven up to temperature and whacked it all in. 20 minutes later, the concoction was removed from the oven and the pan lifted for the big reveal.
Left on the baking tray was what can only be described as a golden brown frisbee. There had been no oven spring. No rise of any sort. There was no crunchy crust. Feeling deflated, I placed it back in the oven as per the instructions to brown it a bit more.
After 10 minutes, I left it on a wire rack to cool. This disappointing, flat disc. After an hour or so, I cut of a slice to try. The inside of it looked like bread but had quite a spongy texture. I ate the piece I had cut off and was pleasantly surprised. Whilst it didn’t taste exactly of bread, it was definitely a bread adjacent product. In fact, it was more in line with a crumpet.
So whilst the loaf may have appeared as an abject failure, it was very edible. Undeterred, I kept trying, buying a cast iron pot along the way, and eventually I’ve managed to make bread. Sometimes it looks very artisan with a flavour to complement it’s appearance. Other times, it still may be a bit dense and whilst I’m still working on consistency, I’m enjoying the process of making and eating my own simple bread.
