Artisan Bread & Cheese: The First Fancy-Basic Loaf!

Unfortunately I haven't posted in a while.  I spilled hot tea on my lap top and had to send it away to get repaired.  Life without a computer was fun, though. I found myself having ample time to do other things like workout, walk to the local florist, go to the winter farmer's market... But now I'm happy I can share my adventures with you.

This was a basic loaf that I based off a recipe from the River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens.  It is a honey, oatmeal, flax seed and sesame seed variation.  I covered the crusts with oatmeal, cornmeal flour, and sesame seeds.

The crust was crispy and the crumb was was milky soft.  The bottoms got a little burnt.  I think it was because of a combination of using a metal cooking sheet instead of stone and getting used to the temperature differences between ovens.  Also, the book said to let the pan that you cook the bread on sit in the oven as it is preheating to 500 degrees and then remove it to put the dough directly on it and turn the temperature down to 400.  I think if I removed and let it sit in the cool air for a few minutes, THEN put the dough on it, it would have been a nice warm pan to crust the bottom of the bread instead of a searing hot one.  In short, I've hopefully learned some lesson that will help my house avoid having to cut off the bottom crust every time they want to enjoy a slice.

Here are some more pictures!:

I also liked how the dough looked without shaping it.  So I put it in the oven to see how the Dionysian experiment would work out.  I was pleased.  :-)

~Shreena