My Own Bakery

When I was younger and on vacation my mother and father would send my sister and I out to get fresh bread every morning. So out we would go, at 8 am, in the cold French or Swiss winter to walk down to the bakery to get two french sticks. The only thing was, my sister would usually eat half of the baguette on the short walk back from the bakery to the hotel, so we would have to get two or three for the day just so bread disposal (read: sister) could eat her baguette on the walk home.

The smell of fresh bread has always been on of my favorite scents. When it comes to bread, I usually went to the local bakery down the street from my house and got whichever loaf was freshest out of the oven, a slab of focaccia, and a Limonata for the ride home. But I started to hear about "no-knead" breads that take minutes to put together, and take no effort. I was always skeptical of this way of making bread and after a few months of putting it off I tried it.

I got the recipe from the New York Times. It is such a simple recipie that can be open to many interpretations.

I made the dough, as per the recipe and let it rise for two and a half hours. My first loaf I made plain, as the recipe directed, but lately I have been adding different spices and flavours to the dough.

Here is the dough, I cut about a grapefruit sized chunk out of the bowl and lightly tossed it between my hands to form a circle and let it rest on a pizza peel with some corn meal on it for twenty minutes.

Once out of the over, and off of the pizza stone, I let it rest for five minutes.


Here is the final product, a nice, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, homemade bread that takes minutes to make, and is by far one of the easiest recipes I have ever made.

One variation I have done is right when I put the dough in the oven I put a few sprigs of rosemary on top of the dough. Next I will try with tossing some Herbs Du Provence on top and maybe some other flavours.

Although, the bread really doesn't need anything else with it besides a nice dollop of some good olive oil or a nice big piece of cheese.