A bit late to the pandemic bread-making bandwagon, I finally decided to try my hand at a basic bread recipe, especially since my friend Marline gifted me with a beautiful bread stone and basket to keep a loaf warm. It was so pretty I had to at least attempt something I’d been putting off because yeast scared the shit out of me. I’m a one bowl/one pan/one pass kind of guy ~ if there are multiple steps for rising and nonsense like that, I’m usually out.
That said, the notion of a warm loaf of rustic bread being broken and slathered in room-temperature butter, coupled with a pretty place to keep it warm got me over my yeast-avoidance. Besides, there was always cranberry juice for an unwanted infection. (I’ve since been told that’s not how it works, but I was taking no chances.)
Between the Beekman Boys and the New York Times, I figured out how to go about it with the easiest and quickest no-knead method. I’m not about kneading just yet. Dough just doesn’t do anything but stick to me, no matter how much flour I throw at it, so the less kneading the better.
The yeast worked – it was alive! – and the dough expanded and I was able to fold it a few times as instructed after the 20-hour rising period (where it nestled in a little dark cupboard that gets extra heat from its proximity above a heating vent). The one change I made was to add a piece of parchment paper to the bottom of the bread to make removal easier, sprinkling it with some cornmeal to also aid in non-sticky ease. It worked out wonderfully, and soon the kitchen was filled with the actual smell of real bread being baked. Such a marvelous thing!
When it was done, I took it out and let it cool before seeing if it would fit in Marline’s Christmas gift, and as the universe will sometimes smile upon our endeavors, it nestled into place neatly, as if made only for this basket. The stone at the base kept it warm, and no matter how hard winter knocked us about, it couldn’t touch us in that moment.
Cutting off an end and spreading some softened butter over its rough edges, I tasted its simple goodness, basking in what was an unmitigated success – an especially happy result from all that rising and non-kneading. I saved half for Suzie since she gave me some of her last yeast effort (those lemon cardamom rolls from a lifetime ago). Good things are meant to be shared.
