TWD, Baking with Julia: White Loaves

As part of Tuesdays with Dorie using the book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, I made the white loaves recipe. You can check out the recipe here. I enjoyed this recipe and was able to use some of my dough agitation techniques I learned from my King Arthur Flour pizza making class. Dealing with the sticky dough made me appreciate the bench scraper we had at the class (like this one), and I headed out to Different Drummer's Kitchen afterwards to pick up one for future bread making projects. I love my Roll'pat for projects like this, as it helps to keep the counter clean, and it is really quick and easy to rinse off afterward.

First I gathered up the dough by mixing together warm water and yeast and then adding flour, sugar, and salt.

You beat in some butter, and then put it in a bowl to rise.

After an hour (ah - breadlove!):

Then take that out and divide it in two on the counter. Then we are patting them out, rolling them up, and sealing the seams.

Plop those in two buttered pans:

Then after baking them, check out how beautiful:

Then we made some tasty sandwiches from the bread (Boar's Head Everroast chicken, dill havarti, Price Chopper German potato salad - delicious):

Overall here are my feeling on this recipe:

• I thought that it was not difficult, and it did not take as much time as some bread recipes I make which need more time to rise. 

• We went out and came back and our house smelled amazing. The smell of fresh baked bread cannot be beat (I think the little bit of sugar enhanced the smell of it).

• My husband liked that it had a nice crust but was tender on the inside (I did like the recipe said and took the loaves out of the pans in the last ten minutes to let the crusts brown all over). He said some breads are either tough all the way through or soft on the crusts, and that this was the right balance. He even called me at work the next day just to tell me again how good the bread was (and this is not really a man who eats bread after the first day we buy at all).

• I think that having that much butter in the recipe probably helps it to stay good to eat for longer, and keeps the texture pliable especially the next day, but for me it had a bit of an aftertaste of butter. This would probably be amazing for something like a grilled cheese or ham sandwich, but eaten plain for breakfast the next day it felt heavy in my stomach. I know it makes two large loaves and that it is only a half of a stick, but I might like the flavor with less butter.

• Of course whole grain and wheat are healthier, and because of this I am probably less likely to make this recipe again. I do, however, see that the very next page in the cookbook has an almost identical wheat recipe just with longer rising times, and I will probably try that recipe next.

Really what beautiful, beautiful loaves you get! Check out 199 other bakers' loaves (and counting!).