For the last couple of weeks I’ve been writing about the joys of baking fancy artisan bread. I read a book titled “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” and learned there are five books in the series. I plan to do a lot of baking and experimenting. Oh what fun!
For my first try, I followed the instructions exactly and made a classic round artisan loaf. But then I wondered if I could bake the dough in a loaf pan to make sandwich bread. My friend Randall has a cast iron loaf pan and I sheepishly admit that I am very envious about it, and covet it greatly. How would bread bake in that cast iron loaf pan? I wanted to know before I bought my own so I invited myself over to Randall’s for a “bake-in”.
I arrived with the wad of dough in my tote bag. We cranked the oven up to 450⁰, lined the pan with parchment paper, plopped in the dough and waited for it to rise. Then we put the pan into the oven. Forty minutes later the bread was done. Wow, it looked like fancy bread from a high end bakery in some swank neighborhood where foodies abound. But would it taste good, the texture be right? While it was still warm we sawed off the first slice and smeared it with butter. The bread was utterly delicious! We devoured the entire loaf right then and there. Now I was even more jealous of Randall’s loaf pan.
A few days later I wanted to make another loaf. I didn’t have a cast iron loaf pan yet so I used one made of ceramic. I followed the same process as before expecting that I would get the same result. I didn’t! The bread was dark golden brown on the outside but unbaked in the center. What to do? The toaster! Three tries got the center baked but the slices shrunk to about ⅔ the original size. And the crust was like a rock. Now what? Re-bake it! I put the loaf in a 450⁰ oven and after 30 minutes, the bread was like a hockey puck with a creamy center.
Mistakes are a necessary part of the learning process. If I continue to experiment and fiddle around with bread baking, I will probably make a lot of mistakes. Randall and I agreed that “Don’t be afraid!” could be a good motto in the kitchen. After all, if you don’t play you can’t win, or improve. If you learn something from a mistake then it isn’t a mistake. So bring on those mistakes! They may even taste good with butter.