#Baketogether: I'm a boulebaby

Last week I was sitting down to teach Naiya how to knit for the umpteenth time. She really wants to learn how, but her mind drifts when she knits and by the end of the first row she has frequently picked up a few extra stitches. She set her work down in frustration and said to me, "Mom, I'm never going to be able to knit." I put down the throw I'm working on and said, "You're right." Her eyes widened in surprise but I continued, "When you put it in your mind that you can't do something, you have already set yourself up to fail. Some things take more time than others to learn. It took me three weeks working everyday to be able to knit a few good rows." She sighed and picked up her work again.

I think for some people making bread is like Naiya trying to learn to knit. Maybe they heard it was hard and so they went into it with that in their heads. Maybe they heard that some people cook and other people bake, so they feel they can only be good at one or the other. I'm not sure what the phenomenon is that creates this angst around bread making, but it is there. You or someone you know might be yeastaphobic...true story.

Growing up my mom did all the cooking and the baking. I can't remember a time where wonderful smells weren't filling the house. She made seamless transitions from cooking to baking. I would lurk around her waist watching her knead dough and then peer into the towel covered bowls to watch it magically rise. She made it look so easy and effortless. So when I was on my own and decided to make bread I didn't have any hangups. After all, making bread was easy, and so, for me, it was. The only type of bread that I ever had any sort of a learning curve with was sourdough. But me and my starter Edgar Allan Dough are good friends now, we understand each other.

OK so that was a nice little story but there was a reason for sharing. This past month a group of us have been baking Abby Dodge's recipe for a Peasant Boule bread. This was for Abby's #baketogether. We have all been going our own direction, switching things here and there from Abby's original recipe, and coming up with our own take on this bread. And let me tell you, even if you just make the recipe "as is" you will have a wonderful loaf of bread to nosh on. My family has enjoyed this very much.

I started by just following the recipe verbatim. I wanted to get an idea of what I was going to be playing with. The bread is light and buttery. My family gobbled down that first loaf.

Next loaf I started to play with a bit. I had an idea of making a beer bread. I've had beer bread before but only ever as a quick bread. I was curious if you could make a yeast based beer bread. I decided to swap out the water and replace it with some stout beer I had in the house. I was a little concerned that something funky might happen when I decided to do the bread this way. I was worried that something might happen between the yeast and the beer, or the baking powder and the beer. I was thinking I might walk out of the kitchen only to return and be confronted by some over sized, drunken ball of dough rummaging through the cabinets looking for more sugar. But then I decided I really had nothing to lose. This is when it's nice to not have any professional culinary training. My head isn't all cluttered with rules and regulations so I just sort of jump in and do it without a whole bunch of backseat drivers in my head telling me that something won't work. After the first rise I poked my head in the oven (which is where I let my dough rise during the winter. Just leave the light on), the dough had behaved itself and had doubled in size. So I divided it into four small loaves and made beer bread bowls for the Gouda cheese soup I had made for #souperbowl. They came out perfect.

The kiddos enjoyed eating the tops with their soup, while us grownups got to enjoy the bread bowls. I had never made a bread bowl before and I was really pleased with how these turned out. I will be making them again.

Oh, before I forget. Here's a little tip I use to make sure my bread has doubled in size: I just take a Tupperware, oil it, coat the dough in the oil, and mark the top of where the dough is with a rubber band. Then it's really easy to tell when the bread has doubled in size for it's first rise. Once I know a recipe well enough I don't do this, but it's really helpful when I'm first trying out a new bread recipe or anytime I am making sourdough.

I was really pleased with the beer bread version so I took that and added in some thyme that I dried from my herb garden and some Pecorino Romano cheese for the last version of this bread. This version was my favorite. Although I was never able to get all the air pockets and fluffy look that Abby did with hers, in the end, it did not matter. Toasted with some homemade strawberry jam, or better yet with some homemade blueberry rhubarb jam, oh-my-word. I mean really on these cold and gloomy days it was like a little ray of sunshine opened up just over my plate. Abby's recipe is so versatile and will now hold a permanent place in my black recipe binder.

Stout, Thyme, and Cheese Peasant Boule

Adapted from Abby Dodge's recipe for Peasant Boule

(Makes one loaf)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups of stout beer (warmed to between 115°F and 125°F)
• 1 packet (1/4 ounces) of instant yeast (rapid rise)
• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 1/2 -2/3 a cup of Pecorino Romano cheese; grated fine
• 1 teaspoon of thyme, plus a little extra for dusting the top of the loaf before baking.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 3 1/3 cups (15 ounces) of all purpose flour
• Olive oil for coating the bowl
• 3 tablespoons of butter; melted

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix together the warmed beer, yeast, and sugar until the yeast is dissolved. Allow the yeast to proof for 10 minutes. Once the yeast is foamy on the top of the beer mix in the cheese, thyme, and salt. In the first cup of flour, add in the baking powder. Stir the flour cup by cup with a wooden spoon into the beer mixture until the dough comes together around your spoon and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
2. Scoop the dough out onto a well floured surface, and dust the top of the dough with some flour too. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until it is smooth and springs back when you poke it with your finger.
3. Lightly grease the inside of a bowl or a Tupperware with some olive oil. Pop the dough into that bowl and turn it to make sure that all sides of the dough are lightly coated with the olive oil. Cover the top of the bowl with some plastic wrap or a moist towel and set it in a warm, draft-free spot until the dough has doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 45 minutes- 1 1/2 hours.
4. Using some of the melted butter, generously butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface (there’s no need to flour—the dough is soft but not sticky) and press to deflate it. Shape the dough into a 7-inch-wide round and place it, smooth side up, in the center of the prepared pan. Generously brush the top and sides with some of the melted butter and dust with a little of the extra thyme. You may not need all the butter.
5.  Let the dough rise (no need to cover it) in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 25 minutes. It will fill the pan.
6. About 15 minutes before the dough is ready to bake, position a rack in the middle of the oven and the oven to 375°F. When the dough has risen to about 2 inches above the edge of the pan, bake until the boule is well browned and sounds hollow when tapped about 30-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and tip the baked bread onto a rack and remove the pan. Set it right side up and let cool completely.

*Get a printable version of this recipe here*