Artisan bread – Part 2: Baking the bread

When your ready to bake some bread, pull the dough out of the fridge and prepare a pan.

Butter the pan or grease with oil, then dust with a bit of flour, spread it envently and shake off the excess.

grease and dust the pan

Then dust your hands with flour and grab some dough,…  

grab and pull
take enough for a good size loaf
shape it by pulling outwards and tucking under
shape shape shape. Don’t spend too much time here, just 10 seconds!
place on the dusted baking pan (I made two)

Thank you Hubby! (^_^) He helped with the photos.

I put the remaining dough back in the fridge
leave to rise for 30 minutes
then dust with flour so the knife can cut through easily
x pattern
# pattern, you can make whatever pattern you like really. Cut about a 1/2 inch deep
pre-heat oven to 200°C and add water to the broiler tray. This is important, will make the bread moist and nice.
when the oven is ready, place in the dough and bake for 30 to 40 minutes
almost done
ready!
let it cool a bit, cut into slices with a bread knife and serve

 

About aika

Making, eating and sharing good food are a splendid way to start, brake and end a day! I post good eats on www.pendolamama.co.ke. Life is a feast, eat up!

8 thoughts on “Artisan bread – Part 2: Baking the bread”

  1. The bread came out lovely. But my water in the boiler tray got finished and also I kept the bread in a bit too long and had made small loaves, all of which I believe contributed to the very hard crust. Lesson learnt, keep replenishing the water if it runs out, and don’t keep in the bread for too long.

    Reply

  3. finally! the bread was a success after afew failed attempts.It was abit salty for my taste so next time I’ll add alittle sugar. my crust was a liitle hard too because I waited for it to brown, I think I placed the baking tray too low so next time I’ll put it abit higher. loved the 1st outcome though.

    Reply

    1. Hey Lydia! Thanks for trying till it worked! (^_^)
      Yes,… it’s a bit salty.
      But I would suggest reducing the salt rather than adding sugar though

      Also remember that heat rises so place the tray lower, not higher. It’s cooler at the bottom (unless you are using a gas oven and the flames are at the bottom, then you probably want your tray in the middle).

      When I bake the bread, the crust tends to soften as it cools. Place on a tray and cover with a clean dry dish cloth and let it cool. That might help a bit with the dry crust.

      Reply

  4. Hi Aika was told about this blog by Shiru and I tried out this bread. I was so excited to have baked bread! I also found it to be salty … but it was an awesome bread all the same.

    Good job on the blog

    Reply

    1. Hey Danika!
      Glad you enjoyed the baking! ＼(^_^)／
      Feel free to reduce the salt a bit if you’d like. For some reason artisan bread is just salty!!

      Try it with just 1 tablespoon to start with and then adjust from there.

      Reply

  5. When reading recipes for French bread/loaves (the ones with a hard/crackly/crumbly outer crust and soft insides) the recipes all included water in the oven to produce steam in order to have a hard crust, as that’s what the bread is known for. Maybe if one doesn’t want the hard crust they could leave out the water? Would it still be artisanal bread?

    Reply

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