Hot and cold

Exhibit A: my first loaf of bread.

I've been eyeing this bread method for a while - Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day. Since I don't have the book, I found the master recipe on the Ivory Hut. In general, the masterminds of the process are very generous with their ideas and post a lot of recipes on their blog. Anyways, the stupid stove would not get hot enough. Include the fact that I don't have an oven thermometer and good faith that my bread would some how bake, and you get this little beauty. It actually wasn't bad, but I had hoped for a thicker crust. The oven was so lukewarm that I still had water left in the broiling pan afterwards.

I baked this on parchment paper onto of my brand new Lodge cast iron baking pan. I didn't like how the bottom didn't crust at all - the rest of the bread crusted a bit despite the low temperatures.

Exhibit B: Solid as a rock
In my second attempt, I used an oven a suite over. I made this loaf a big large in hopes to eat it with friends the next day. I read on one of the recipes that the larger loafs take longer to bake, so I think I left it in the oven for 45 minutes. Ah geez. I could barely cut it with the knife I had.

Luckily, it was still very edible, just difficult to take apart. The 5 minute method leaves you with a very wet dough, so even if the outside is super-duper crusty, the inside is all yum.

Additionally, for this loaf, I used corn meal on the bottom to prevent sticking onto my "pizza peel" and pan. I highly recommend it. And, to my surprise, it wasn't messy at all.

Exhibit C: small packages

Seeing that my last two bread endeavors were minor failures, I felt that I needed to try something a little different. I came across this recipe on the website, and I knew I had to try it. And man, it was so easy. The only thing I would have done differently is roll out the dough more so I could have more layers of cinnamon and brown sugar when I turned it into a roll.