The Bread

Le Creuset recipe
Extremely crusty and good. The bread itself? Nothing special.

I bake bread regularly. Lately, though, I've been doing American sandwich loaves and seem to have lost my rhythm with the artisan loaves that I love. I have spent two days making four loaves of two recipes of bread for the bread ovens I have.  There have been a lot of errors!

Le Creuset embossed on bottom crust.

Day 1 errors: I thought I had mis-mixed the dough without fat. It rose well, though, and felt great. But it wasn't the recipe (I thought), so I tossed it. Then I checked the recipe. It was correct! Oh, I was so upset with myself!

I then made two separate batches because the amount of dough almost overwhelmed my Kitchenaid. Therefore, the doughs were different, and one was more hydrated than the other. Upset, again!

Scoring the tops of the loaves before baking was another sudden challenge. I could not find my bread lamé, so I used a serrated knife. I disliked what I did.

I had also used bannetons and bread stencils. I didn't flour the bannetons well so the pattern was not clear. I over-oiled the stencils so that their impressions never were defined at all. I have some ideas on which recipes the stencils would work best with though. This recipe may have been too wet.

I couldn't compare the two finished loaves because the doughs had been so different. But the Le Creuset loaf seemed to have more oven lift than the Lodge. I was not impressed with the taste of the bread. The crust was fantastic. The crust sang for several minutes out of the oven, longer than I have ever heard. It was as flaky as the best pastry would be. 

The Le Creuset oven is less than half of the weight of the Lodge, and that is most helpful when you are disabled. I did not mind the branding on the bottom at all. Several reviewers were indignant about it. It reminded me of old pie tins way way back in time that we used to use. 

A crumb that I like. 

Day 2: fewer errors. I used a British cob (English for boule) recipe that John always loved. It whips up in a minute and you can raise it in the house or in the fridge for fermentation. It also has a lot of butter in it, which is probably why people love the recipe so much. The dough is heavy, so it is easier to shape and slash the loaves before baking. 

Cob dough rising.

Cob dough is doubled now.

I didn't use any bannetons with these loaves. I knew from years of experience that the dough does well without it. I may use one next time for the texturing. Below is one loaf in the Le Creuset oven.

Cob in the Le Creuset oven.

Lodge oven on the left, Le Creuset on the right.
Both loaded with rising cob dough.

I texted Amelia about my missing lamé and she knew where it was. Unfortunately, the razor was dull and I had no others, so I used a serrated knife plus the dull blade and mangled the slashes. Another big upset!

Baked cobs with mangled slashes.

I prefer the taste of these cobs. The crust is entirely different than the large boules from the day before. That has to be a consequence of the added butter. The crust does sing when out of the oven. The crumb is soft like I prefer lately. It's a wonderful toast and sandwich bread. I did not like the oven lift from the Lodge oven.

When Amelia comes today, she'll be taking three loaves of bread home! That will make room for me to make more. Bread is my therapy and helped me move through Christmas. Now I can make more for the community.

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