Cooking With LSP - Bread

 

I know, man shall not live on bread alone. That in mind, we notoriously have bodies which need to be fed and the aerogel rubbish which passes for bread in our supermarkets, if you can even find it, doesn't cut the ticket. Problem? Solution. Make it yourself. Here's how. 

Get a mixing bowl and add 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast, and 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Mix that beast around, stir it up, then cover the thing and rest it, covered, somewhere out of reach of animals. And here's the thing.

Let the dough rest and rise overnight++, ignore it, let it do its thing as though it were an errant teen. Then, somewhere before Vespers on Holy Saturday, remove the dough onto a floured surface and form it into a ball. Let it rest some more in a bowl on parchment paper as heavy metal heats up in the oven at 450*.

After the metal's hot, about 30 minutes, pull it out and transfer the dough to the pot, parchment paper and all, then cover the thing, put it back in the oven and kick back for 30 minutes. Maybe clean a gun or sharpen a kukri, not that any of you have such things. They were lost at sea. Whatever, your call, no rule.

After 30, uncover the metal and finish off the loaf for around 10 minutes. Result? Behold your delicious, life giving bread and fall upon that scoff, like a warrior.

Song of a Baker,

LSP

Cooking With LSP - Bread Of Life

Inspired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, I went to the kitchen in search of action. Yes, bread action. Here's the thing. From January to early March you were laying in supplies of flour and yeast. 

Why? Because you knew a Red Plague panicked populace would empty the shelves come the COVID shoe drop. So what to do with all those baking supplies? Make bread, obviously, and here's an easy recipe, which works. Trust me on this.

Dough after appx 18 hours. Add more flour if too runny

Here's how it's done. First step. Put three cups of flour in a mixing bowl, add 1/4 tsp yeast and 1 tsp salt. You can add more salt if you want to make like some kind of NYT know-it-all. There's no rule, it's up to you, but I recommend 1 tsp.

Whatever, behold the result and stir it around. Don't be shy, stir it up, then add 1 cup of tepid water to the mix.  Stir that up too, it's not hard. Add more water, maybe a 1/3 of a cup until you've got a shaggy dough. 

Tip it outta the bowl and onto a floured surface

It shouldn't be too wet or too dry, just a shaggy dough, and you'll know it when you meet it. Cover that fella with clingfilm, the bowl, not the dough, and let it rest overnight, 18 hours+.

Next day the dough should look bubbly, this is good. Remove it to a floured surface and form to a ball. Add more flour or water if the floury beast's too dry or too wet. That done, put it back in the mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and let it rest for another hour, another rise. 

Heavy Metal

In the meanwhile, preheat your oven to 450*. 30 minutes later, put some unoiled heavy metal into the oven to heat up. I use a Lodge, you might prefer Crueset. That's up to you. Another 30 minutes later, uncover the mixing bowl, form the dough into a ball again on the jolly old floured surface, take the heavy metal from the oven, uncover it and...

Put the dough ball in the Dutch, crease side up. Don't burn your hands on the incandescent heavy metal, use an oven mitt, for goodness sake. Then cover and bake for 30 minutes at 450*. Uncover for another 10 minutes or until the bread's as crusty as you like, totally your call, and remove from the oven.

Right Tasty

Gasp in wonder. You've made bread which smells good, looks good and is good, it wasn't even hard to do. Reflection over, cover that bad boy up with an Archiepiscopal tea towel and let rest for a few minutes. Then cut into it and fall upon your scoff like...

A Warrior. 

LSP