Give us this day our daily bread

Over the last few months I have let my bread-baking lapse (with occasional exceptions to make bagels or pizza) because the local farmers' market has included a stall from Baltimore's Atwaters Bakery, which makes some of the best bread I have had this side of the Atlantic. Whole Foods bread tends to have too-soft crusts and they bag the bread before it is ready, so it continues to steam in the bag. Atwaters has great sourdough, rye, and pumpernickel.

But now that the farmers' market is in hibernation, I am back to the baking and I realized that I did miss it. Baking bread is a form of relaxation for me, and I revel in discovering new techniques. Some great books include the Bread Baker's Apprentice and Clayton's French Bread, the latter of which I used to make some pain complet yesterday. Pain complet is basically a whole wheat bread that is often shaped like challah bread - braided, essentially. Clayton's recipe called for making three loafs, but I decided on one loaf of braided bread and put the rest in a loaf pan in three chunks to make it a semi-pull-apart bread. The bread came out well and has a nice flavor developed from an overnight pre-ferment and a little honey. I use a stand mixer most of the time, rather than hand-kneading, because it keeps me from adding too much flour. That said, you need to get your hands in the dough to make sure it's coming together right. The key is to not be afraid of a wet, sticky dough. In many cases that's okay (particularly some italian breads, like a ciabatta) and will smooth out as it rises.

In general, home baking of bread has limitations and will not usually achieve the same type bread a commercial baker can, for two main reasons: commercial ovens have steam-injection which keeps the dough surface moist and allows the inside to cook a little before the crust forms (which will be crispier), and commercial ovens get much hotter, which yields a thicker, crunchier crust as well. I have gotten close with a few breads, but often you have to cheat a little with a wash of some sort (egg and milk, or just water, or some oil).

Finally, I have been using active dry yeast instead of quick-rise yeast. I think it doesn't yield as high a rise and I may switch to quick-rise, but generally I have been happy with the results. Sometimes the rise just doesn't work the way you want it to, but that is dependent on so many factors (kneading, air moisture, temperature of water used in the bread) that you just have to accept they won't all be winners.