My bread

Something about making bread is exciting to me. Maybe it's because it seems so old school and because people don't really do it anymore. Maybe it's because people are often impressed that you make your own bread. Mostly I think it's because I seriously love bread. I could eat a whole loaf of rosemary bread in one sitting I swear. And when I say making bread I'm not talking about cheating. I'm talking no bread machines or Kitchen Aid mixers. Just your ingredients and a wooden spoon. (Side note I think wooden spoons make everything taste better.)

My mom and I took a bread making class from one of the bakers at Essential Baking a few months ago and while it was fun when I went home and tried their methods it just didn't turn out right. I didn't have a pizza stone to bake it on and I don't know if I put enough water in the pan below to create good steam and then I had to spray water into the oven right before putting the bread in. Whew. Yeah this was too much work even by bread making standards. Then we discovered Jim Lahey's method of baking bread in a cast iron dutch oven. It traps the steam in the pot and creates an amazing crust like the steam injected ovens of the real commercial bakers. This is by far the easiest recipe for bread that I have ever made.

 "My Bread"  by Jim Lahey. (Here it is on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-Work-No-Knead/dp/0393066304 )