Bread is not simple; it fools you with its simple ingredients and easy instructions. Everywhere you look, there are hundreds of recipes bragging they are "easiest" or "no-kneed" or my favorite, "I don't buy bread anymore!". They are all liars. I became interested because it's technical, time consuming, relaxing and provides a reward upon completion, I also think it's something that I should know how to do because I have this idea in my head of wanting to be more self reliant and capable.
Through-out this post, I've attempted to stop myself from beginning a sentence with 'My great-grandmother…' because it feels so much like every recipe blog that I hesitate; luckily this is not a recipe blog.
As a child, I would visit my great uncles farm, and his mother would have this rustic, country bread that I would have picked rocks in any field to have a slice with butter. The recipe disappeared when she passed as it was "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" and maybe that's what happens when you've been baking it for 50 years. The best I can hope for is to try and recreate what I remember from childhood.
In this process, I am starting with the basics, learning to bake any type of bread. I started with an "amish white bread". They all did not look like the photo above, but eventually I understood the process and created something edible. This recipe was exactly as I expected, a sandwich bread that was easy to make.
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Next up I read that baking in a dutch oven can produce that rustic crispy crust, and although I don't have the site to the recipe anymore this bread came out terribly. Sitting on the cooling rack, it taunted me with it's incredible appearance. After an hour, I finally gave in and cut into it for a taste, only to discovery it was a rock disguised as bread. I'm unsure where I went wrong but two batches came out identical and so this recipe was removed from my inventory.
Next up I tried the dutch oven method again but with the amish white bread recipe just to see what would happen. The taste didn't improve, the crust did not meet my expectations and I didn't want to make this recipe anymore.
In summary, I started this to try and get close to the recipe I remember from a child, however I had to learn how to bake bread with a purpose without blindly following a recipe. If I were to find a recipe that even remotely resembled my great grandmothers then I could build off of it and that requires some knowledge of the process and practice. At this point I'm happy I can create something edible, but it's nothing I can be proud of. In my post, I've skimmed over so many trials and tests, methods and procedures; at this point I'm happy to say that I can make bread, I'm just not very good at it yet. Every loaf is another lesson learned and a step toward recreating a taste I vividly remember but don't have the skill to create.
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