White Loaves - Tuesdays with Dorie

OK.  So in a weak moment I joined another online cooking group ... baking to be exact.  I'm not having great results with most of the Baked Sunday Mornings recipes that I've tried, so I decided to jump on board with another Dorie Greenspan cookbook ... Baking with Julia.  If I understand correctly, Dorie Greenspan compiled recipes from a PBS series hosted by Julia Child where Julia welcomed a wide variety of famous chefs onto her show to share recipes & techniques.  We will be baking twice a month and our recipes include everything from breads to desserts.  Like other online cooking groups, I can not share the recipe on my blog, but I can direct you to the "hosts" for each recipe who will be allowed to share the recipe on their blog, so you can snag it there.

First up, white loaves.  I don't have a ton of experience with yeast breads, so this was a good place for me to start and I'd love to work on & improve my yeast doughs/breads this year.  With only six ingredients (all were already in my pantry or fridge), this recipe came together very quickly.  For those who are wondering, my Kitchen-Aid mixer did a lot of dancing, but it's done the same for other thick doughs.

After letting the dough rise for about an hour, I shaped it into two loaves....

After rising for another 45 minutes ... ready to go in the oven....

Right out of the oven....

While my bread was baking, the smell was KILLING me!  I had to restrain myself from pulling the bread out too early and gobbling it down!  

I did put one my loaves back into the oven (without the pan ... directly onto the oven shelf) for just a couple minutes so that the sides could brown a little more.  It browned very quickly.  Results: I think I prefer the softer, less-browned crust unless I planned to eat the bread with something that I was going to soak up like soup or spaghetti sauce.  My 9-year old liked the more brown/crispy crust better.

I better run.  My kids are anxious to sink their teeth into a slice of warm bread!

If you'd like the join our group, there is still time.  Go HERE.

If you'd like to get a copy of the cookbook that we'll be using for our Tuesday baking group, go HERE.

To get today's recipe, go HERE.

PS  After seeing a few other bakers produce some HUGE loaves of bread, I decided to try a bit larger of a bread pan than what the recipe recommends ... I used two 9-5/8" x 5-1/2" pans.  The bread still grew taller than the bread pan while baking.