My first time (baking yeast bread)

When I decided to make my life about making things instead of thinking things, it was inevitable that I would eventually arrive at baking.

Honestly, I’m pretty obsessed with food. I don’t cook often (one of the perks of being married to a retired chef), but John doesn’t really bake and I thought, hell, I can do this.

For my first loaf, I decided to make roasted garlic and herb no-knead bread. Here’s what it’s supposed to look like:

Okay, easy peasy. I’ve got this.

First I had to do the shopping. John has a well-stocked pantry, so the only thing I really needed was a jar of yeast. Then I raided our herb garden for rosemary and thyme. Done and done.

Keep in mind I’ve never done this before, and I didn’t even study the pictures too closely, because I like to fly by the seat of my pants at all times.

Nah, let’s just call it “beginner’s mind.” That’s better.

Anyway, I mixed up the ingredients and let the dough rise. Meanwhile I roasted the garlic and organized the herbs. A few observations:

1. If you like watching Dr. Pimple Popper, you’re really going to like the part where you squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins.
2. There is no easy way to separate thyme leaves from their stalks. But, as I kept reminding myself, slowing down to pluck tiny thyme leaves and place them in a measuring spoon is exactly the point.
3. Either I had no idea what I was doing (fact) and/or no-knead bread dough is not meant to be handled without the parchment paper in between it and your hands. So sticky!

My unbaked loaf looked like this:

You guys, may I never forget the aroma of raw bread dough covered in roasted garlic and fresh rosemary and thyme. It was amazing.

After some mixing and more rising, I dumped the dough into our cast iron dutch oven and this happened:

When I say there’s magic in the world, this bread is what I’m talking about. Gather a little flour, a little salt, some cooperative yeast, and about 10,000 thyme leaves, and 6 hours later you get this.

Here’s a shot of it sliced, which accidentally looks almost exactly like one of the photos from the recipe!

I slathered some butter on there and went wild.

It didn’t turn out exactly like the photos in the recipe, but when does it ever? Pretty good job for a first time baker. Now that I’m armed with a little jar of yeast, no bread recipe is safe!