can’t stand the social media and other covid-19 stupidity, so might as well bake.

93519504_10222813228944885_2200453604215619584_o

Bread.

A baking art form I have never mastered.  Well I am going to give it a whirl.  My childhood friend Martha made that beautiful loaf you see above.  (And no, I am NOT sitting in her kitchen in Philadelphia, I borrowed the photo from her Facebook page.)

It’s No-Knead Bread and it is a New York Times recipe:

INGREDIENTS
3 cups/385 grams all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed

PREPARATION
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.

Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

And why am I conquering my fear of bread making? Well among other things, I have a friend who owns a restaurant who is teaching everyone the fun of baking sourdough bread with her sourdough starter.  So baby steps.

But baking and gardening and cooking distracts me from the idiots on social media.  And it keeps me from looking at the Chester County COVID19 maps. Both of which are good things.

Off to start my dough!

Have a good evening!

2 thoughts on “can’t stand the social media and other covid-19 stupidity, so might as well bake.

Comments are closed.