Artisan bread

Artisan bread is, apparently, bread with big holes in it. Those holes in the middle of the loaf, which are formed by the irregular fermentation and rising which happens when dough is kneaded and stretched by hand. The right kind of holes are the mark of good bread. Or so my bread baking teacher says. I've been learning more about bread making from an online course on Craftsy, which was an inspired birthday present from Lorna. (If you're craftily inclined, by the way, Craftsy has online classes on everything from hand painting cakes to couture sewing techniques to rigid heddle weaving - guess you'd have to do the course to find out about that one...)

I've been trying to make better bread for about a year and a half now. I started off, ambitiously, with sourdough, which I realise now is way harder than yeasted bread to make well. My sourdough is nice toasted, but nowhere near perfect. Now I have a really good standby recipe for a no-knead yeasted bread, which Jess in Canada passed on, that produces a pretty decent loaf full of tasty seeds and nuts, and most importantly is easy make on an office day, as you can mix the dough in the morning, leave it to rise all day, and bake it after work. 

But I know that to make really good bread you have to put a lot more work in. So I spent a morning trying out the first class of my Craftsy class: basic French bread. The teacher is very enthusiastic and sometimes annoyingly American, but full of useful information. I mixed to the right proportions (68% moisture), kneaded and stretched at 20 minute intervals, shaped loaves and left them to prove in satisfyingly traditional looking bowls and linens, made a mess of transferring them to the baking tray (a bread peel is clearly an invaluable tool, although a quickly washed piece of wooden shelf board is a reasonable substitute), and finally baked them in a hot oven with the requisite amount of steam. And the results? Well, they're definitely not perfect - not enough holes. But the crust was pretty good and the crumb wasn't too bad at all, and it tasted fantastic still warm with a thick spread of butter (but then what bread doesn't!). I think I just need more practice...