Bread-Baking: My New Obsession

Do you have any New Year’s Day traditions? I was just telling someone on the phone that I always feel sleepy and melancholic on New Year’s Day. Maybe that’s because I live in Seattle and it’s always, and I mean always, rainy and miserable on this day. It’s probably, also, because I drink champagne on New Year’s Eve, and everybody knows how they feel after a few glasses of champagne–even if it is in moderation. So, determined to do something uplifting and fun this year, I pulled out my new bread book and started baking. Let’s just say, after digging into the pages, I may never buy store-bought bread again …

I’ve made bread before–a lot of bread. But until I discovered the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by authors Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoe Francois, I will admit, I thought bread baking was sort of a waste of time. Why would you go through all the trouble to make your own bread when you could buy a perfectly good artisan loaf at the market? Jeff and Zoe, however, totally simplified the bread-baking process with their master bread recipe and easy, no-knead technique. The result is a fridge full of dough–just break of a piece of dough, shape it, and bake it when you want. The dough keeps in the fridge for 14 days.

So, now I have a big bin of dough in my fridge, and I can make hot, fresh bread every morning. How fun is that? My family went nuts for this bread (we loved dipping it in the spicy garlic olive oil and vinegar set above–a gift from my husband’s boss from Pike Place Market). I’ll just say, I made a simple whole-wheat loaf today, and between me, my husband and my 3 year old (and yes, the 1 year old had a few bites too) the loaf was gone in under an hour.

And I have another loaf baking in the oven right now. I feel so Martha!