Machinist? -Check!
Woodworker? -Check!
Artisan Bread Maker? -Check!
Today, I made my first attempt at making bread. Not just any bread, but super fancy artisan style bakery bread.
A friend from work is to blame for this. He's a totally cool dude that simply likes to try out first-hand everything he learns. When he mentioned he ventured into the realm of artisan bread baking, I'm thinking he really went off the deep end.
But the more he talked, the more I was interested. I borrowed his book that inspired him (Ken Forkish, the author), and after a couple of days of reading, I tried it out today.
It's a pretty simple process, and the book walks you through all the many steps with good explanations behind it all. I don't have all the best and proper equipment, but I made it work with what we do have.
Here we are all puffed up after proofing, and ready to bake:
The bread is baked in the Dutch oven pot. In this picture, I just took the lid off for the last 15 minutes of baking:
And finally it is done. Oh man, it looked just like the pictures in the book!
I think there could have been a few more big puffy holes, but hey - for a first effort, I think it turned out super good.
It was alot of fun to make, and it was alot of fun to learn some of the science behind the bread making process.
I don't know if I'll be doing this every Saturday, but I can see doing this every now and then as the mood strikes.
