Hooray for Bread!

 Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; 

it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.  

 --Ursula K. Le Guin

Mmmm. Fresh-baked bread.

While I love to bring home paper-wrapped artisanal loaves from our local bakery, there's just something about making bread with your own hands.

I have a lovely weekend routine of bread baking here at Chez Gourmess. My go-to recipe for the past several years has been Jim Lahey's "No-Knead Bread" -- it's so easy to make and comes out the oven golden brown and perfect. Every time. You can add chopped nuts, olives, raisins, herbs, flax seed, etc., to the dough -- there doesn't seem to be a way to mess it up. I usually make the dough before I go to bed and let it rise overnight. A couple more hours of rising the next morning, and it's ready to go. The bread is usually in the oven by the time Chris is done reading the Sunday paper. Voilà! 

 

And now, I've found another bread recipe to add to my culinary repertoire, thanks to Food52.com. It's one of my new favorite food communities, and one of the prettiest food sites around. There are tons of great recipes, and I recently discovered a post there with Dan Leader's 4-Hour Baguette recipe. Ooh la la, baguettes! When we were in Paris this past fall, I loved seeing everyone walking around with their morning bread -- how great would it be to have fresh baguettes every day? Now it looks like I can do just that. (At least on the weekends.)

The recipe is relatively easy, with minimal effort, and the bread is simply délicieux. (I actually made it one-handed due to an injured wrist, and the three loaves turned out beautifully despite my clumsy, GourMESS efforts.) Of course, like any baguette, these taste best when they are still warm from the oven, but if you do have one or two left, don't worry. At the two-day mark, they still seem to be just fine for sandwiches and toast.

 

Yum. I will definitely be making these baguettes again this weekend. Why don't you get the recipe here and join me?

After all, le pain est l'amour.
xoxo