Tuesday, February 7, 2012

TWD/BWJ: White Loaves


Tuesdays with Dorie are back and this time we're Baking with Julia! I had this somewhat delusional idea that this time around I would totally be organized; baking and preparing my post ahead of time. Naturally I didn’t get around to baking this week’s recipe, White Loaves, until this past weekend. Then my plans to write my post ahead of time also got derailed due to working late last night and being too tired once I got home, so here I am on Tuesday night, finally getting my post up and happy to be here. I’m excited for the new challenge (there are some complicated looking recipes in the new book) and reading about everyone’s experiences - apparently there are over 300 bakers.



I find the most difficult part of baking basic yeast breads is planning the time for multiple rises without the bread taking over your entire day. I solved this by putting the bread in the refrigerator after shaping the loaves on Saturday evening. I was planning on letting them rise in the morning, but they actually got rather billowy in the refrigerator so I didn’t have to wait long (I let them sit out around half an hour to take the chill off) to bake them. I followed the recipe exactly as written, though I used about an ounce and a half less flour than the recipe called for. I loved the tip in the book of removing the loaves from the pan for the last ten minutes of baking - it gave the bread wonderful crust.

I didn’t find this bread difficult to make, so I am rating it a 3.5 for Effort and Josh rated it an 8.5 for Deliciousness, for an EDR of 2.42. Thank you to our hostesses, Laurie of Slush and Jules of Someone’s in the Kitchen for getting the group off to a great start; you can find the recipe here. To see how the other bakers fared, click over to the TWD site.