Bread, Beautiful Bread

My name is Melissa Joy, and I’m an addict. I am addicted to British TV. I love period dramas like “Downton Abbey”, and historical recreations like “The Crown”, but more than anything, I love a good cozy murder mystery. I get positively giddy when a new season of “Midsomer Murders” is available.

Admittedly, this addiction is a tad troubling to my family. My husband is fairly certain I am taking notes for the perfect murder, should the need arise. But they can rest assured. Mainly, it just makes me want a nice cup of tea. Most recently, this habit has driven me to attempt to make homemade bread.

I have a subscription to the streaming service Acorn TV, which has now introduced me to some shows from New Zealand and Australia. One of my new favorites is “My Life is Murder.” This show features Lucy Lawless as a retired cop in Melbourne. When she is not being sucked into consulting on unsolved murder cases, she bakes bread. Lots of bread. Of course, with the magic of TV, she makes it look easy.

In real life, I have always found the idea of fresh, baked bread to be intimidating. But with the help of Pinterest, I found a recipe for “easy” homemade French bread from www.iheartnaptime.net and I thought I would give it a whirl.

I chose to try this recipe first because it doesn’t take all day to rise, as some bread recipes do. It uses all-purpose flour, and just a few other simple ingredients already in my pantry. Thankfully, flour is fairly inexpensive, so I wouldn’t be out too much if I totally messed it up.

I learned a lot with my first attempt. Because I now have a lovely Kitchen Aid mixer with a bread hook, I thought I would mix the dough using said mixer. I wanted to love it. I wanted it to be easier. But actually, I found that the flour didn’t mix in without me using a spatula to scrape the sides, and somehow it was a lot messier than my attempt at kneading the dough by hand. Perhaps the mixer does better with a heartier bread dough. I will experiment another time.

I also learned with my first attempt that you can let the bread rise too long. I had my loaves laid out and ready to rise, then went off to a meeting. By the time I got back, my dough had been rising for about 2 hours. This caused the loaves to rise, then begin to settle again, making a flatter loaf. It ended up with more of a biscotti shape than French bread. It still tasted good, but had less surface area for butter slathering.

My third lesson was to remember to brush the tops of the loaves with an egg wash. In my rush to finish dinner prep after my meeting, I forgot this step, and the bread did not brown at all. Again, it tasted good, but looked pasty and unattractive.

So, after a less than thrilling first attempt, I needed to try again. I couldn’t let this bread defeat me when it was so close to great.

This time, I mixed the dough by hand, contained the flour mess a bit more than the mixer, and made sure it was well combined before each addition of flour. I followed the timing exactly, letting the dough rise not one minute too long. And most importantly, I remembered the egg wash.

The end result was much more satisfying! The bread was nicely browned, fluffy on the inside and the loaf was the perfect shape. I now have hope that I can move on to more complicated breads in the future.

This recipe makes 2 loaves, which makes it great for serving a crowd or sharing with a neighbor. It really is easy (once I worked out the kinks) and terribly exciting to make fresh bread.

Freshly made French bread is great with soups, stews, pastas, or served alone, warm with butter and jam.

Between bread and biscuits, this mama is going to need some elastic-waisted pants. Maybe next week’s blog will be a salad….