Bread and Butter

A Loon's Spoon Post

I love French bread and I have almost got the process where I want it - thanks to the Master Recipe: Boule and directions in Jeff Hertzberg's and Zoe Francois' book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

In the morning I mix 6 cups lukewarm water, 1.5 tablespoons yeast, 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt and 6.5 cups of flour together right in my food storage container.

Then, I cover it and carry it into the Snuggery, this is the warmest room in the house and a great place to let the dough rise for 2 hours. The Snuggery is also my office and a favorite place for all 3 dogs to hang out when I'm working.  I am very careful to keep the dough away from the dogs and never leave the dogs and the dough alone - it's just not a good combination and I speak from experience.

After 2 hours or so the container is moved to the refrigerator until I want to use it.

Refrigerating the dough, for at lest 3 hours, makes it less sticky and a lot easier to work with.  About an hour and a half before I want to have warm bread I remove the dough from the refrigerator and form it into loaves.

I place the loaves on parchment paper and use perforated French bread pans that my mother-in-law, Gwen, gave me from Williams-Sonoma. Then, they go back to the Snuggery for 40 minutes to rise.  After about 20 minutes I preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place a low sided pan, I think it's the oven's broiling pan, on a low rack filled with water.  This will create a steam environment, which is GREAT for producing a crisp crust.

The dough goes into the oven for about 30 minutes.  First, I brush the loaves with tap water to help with a crusty crust.

After 30 minutes, or so, the bread comes out of the oven and is ready to eat.  WARNING: Keep it way far away from counter-surfing Weimaraners.  Again, speaking from experience, they have been know to take the whole loaf in the blink of an eye.

I love butter and on this point I agree with Julia.  Unfortunately, butter is not part of a plant-based diet.

Neither, is cream.

So, I decided to try one of the butter substitutes that have come out since my last round as a vegan.  Earth Balance products have received excellent reviews from the vegetarian/vegan communities.

I think I picked the wrong product.  I bought the sticks and they're more of a baking product.  It didn't taste so great spread on the bread.  Earth Balance offers a number of different spreads and I think that's the route I should have taken if I wanted to "butter" my bread.  

You know what? I've ALWAYS been a fan of olive oil.  Dipping French bread in plain or flavored olive oils beats butter in my book.