Bread? Easy!

I'm really enjoying my new baking adventure. In the past two weeks I've made two batches of basic sourdough/whole wheat boule dough, one batch of limpa (a honey sweetened and cardommom spiced dough from Sweden), & one batch of olive oil dough.

I've baked foccacia, peasant loaves and sandwich bread. So far I've learned just how easy it can be to fill your home with mouthwatering aromas and oodles of delicious baked goods.

So now, that's easy, to simply get tasty bread on the table. But as I bake, I have more questions: How do I make my breads a bit lighter but keep them healthy with whole grain flours? How can I get them to rise higher? How can I perfect the slashing across the top technique?

I've ordered the second book by the same authors of "Artisan Bread in 5 Mintues a Day", which is titled: "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" and I look forward to diving into the new recipes. I'm also hoping for more bread baking tips and techniques.

All in good time. For now, I'm enjoying each baking experience, one loaf at a time.

The Tale of Two Pizzas

We make homemade pizza about once a month, with two boys in the house it's an often requested dinner. However, my last attempt at pizza dough was a yeast disaster. I overheated the dough and killed the yeast. Last week I set out to calmly become friends with yeast and make a few beautiful homemade pizzas. I have come to rely on Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone cookbook for a basic pizza dough recipe. She calls for kneading the dough 10-15 minutes. I measured out the ingredients and began kneading the first batch. I was kneading, and kneading, and kneading, then, I had an idea. Another favorite baking cookbook of mine is Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead. We have had fabulous results with her techniques. And as my hands were beginning to cramp up, I decided, HEY, I'm not going to knead the second batch! So, I just mixed the ingredents all together into a ball and stopped there.
In the end, I preferred the no-knead pizza. The dough was easier to work with but still provided a lovely crunchy crust and held up to a lot of toppings (sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions).
The kneaded dough was turned into two mini-pizzas for the boys. They turned out crunchy as well, but I'd say with a little too much chew.
So if the difference between the two is minor, and in favor of the easier method, I say why knead if there is no need?

The No-Knead Pizza, The Winner!