Best home made-better-than-bakery-crusty bread easy NYT recipe!

[DD]

paula and friends: bread report...

my mother is an expert italian bread maker (she's made it by hand for many years. she has tried the machine bread, but it just can't do the job as she can). anyway, she wasn't exactly sure what to make of the printed recipe, had some doubts. however, being the breadmaker that she is (she had seen some of your remarks on this thread), she just had to give it a try.

guess what? she LOVED it and will add this to her bread making routine. :clap_1:

can't wait to try it. will do so soon.

:clap_1: :clap_1: I KNOW!!! I had my doubts too--but it's wonderful!! Yippee for Mom!!:clap_1:

 

[shakennotstirred]

This bread is incredible! Just took a loaf out of the oven & it smells delicious. Hopefully it survives until dinner!

 

[Teresa]

This bread is incredible! Just took a loaf out of the oven & it smells delicious. Hopefully it survives until dinner!

what a great idea - freshly baked bread on Super Bowl Sunday! :clap_1:

 

[jpbhen]

love it. have tried a few variations:
1. 1 cup grated asiago
2. 2T fresh chopped rosemary
3. 2T knorr dry pesto mix
4. 1 cup rye flour, 2 cups white plus 2T caraway seeds for nice rye bread

all of these have turned out great. i am going to experiment a bit more with the rye bread - might use half and half, and add a bit of gluten to help it rise. i have a loaf of rosemary, and a loaf of asiago with a bit of rosemary, both resting tonight. however, it is COLD in the house - only about 12 degrees in cincinnati tonight. hope it rises ok! on our way back to seagrove next weekend for a quick week at the house - and i'm sure more bread baking!!

 

[Paula]

jpbhen:

thanks for the variations. I'm ready to try some new ideas. I love the bread so much and it's so easy to make that I'm going to get a dutch oven for our cottages so that we can make home-made bread when we're in SoWal. the only trick will be the timing (the two hour rising time at the end and then the 40 min. cooking time). There's quite a bit of flexibility with the first rising. I've taken to making two batches of dough and then cooking one right after the other and freezing the second one. Unless everyone eats the first one within the first hour...

 

[Mermaid]

This bread recipe is making the rounds. It showed up in this past Sunday's Chicago Tribune newspaper. They had a gorgeous picture of a freshly baked, freshly cut loaf of bread. Yum.

 

[Paula]

I just saw a loaf that looked exactly like this one from the recipe selling for $5.75 at a market. I can't help it, but I love to make the same thing for about $1.00 a loaf at home and it tastes as good if not better hot out of the oven and makes the house smell so good. I made so many loaves when I first got the recipe (and froze several) that the kids got sick of it but they're starting to ask for it again... Perhaps this weekend I'll make more.

 

[SGB]

Ok, I finally got around to trying out this bread recipe, but was a little stumped at step 1! I've never made bread before, so please forgive my ignorance! What exactly is "instant yeast"? At Publix and Brunos I found "active dry yeast" and "rapid rise highly active yeast" and "breadmaker yeast". Is the "rapid rise highly active yeast" the same thing as "instant yeast"? If not, what is it and where can I get some? Thanks!

Edit: Found a site on-line that explained that instant yeast is the same as rapid rise.

 

[seacrestkristi]

Me too sounds yummy Paula you rock! thanks for sharing. Hubbabubba will think I'm really doin' sumpin' if I bake this. ;-) Hope it turns out. I've been known to bake bricks.

 

[Jdarg]

Ok, I finally got around to trying out this bread recipe, but was a little stumped at step 1! I've never made bread before, so please forgive my ignorance! What exactly is "instant yeast"? At Publix and Brunos I found "active dry yeast" and "rapid rise highly active yeast" and "breadmaker yeast". Is the "rapid rise highly active yeast" the same thing as "instant yeast"? If not, what is it and where can I get some? Thanks!

Edit: Found a site on-line that explained that instant yeast is the same as rapid rise.

Oh SGB- I don't like to bake anything involving yeast- yeast just confuses the whole baking feng shui for me. And I always get mixed up on the yeast thing.