Michelle Anderson - Making Artisan Breads in the Bread Machine: Beautiful Loaves and Flatbreads from All Over the World

Beautiful Loaves and Flatbreads from All Over the World

MICHELLE ANDERSON

As always, to my mother, Thea, who never baked a
loaf of bread in her life, but who would have sat with a
glass of wine keeping me company, making me laugh.
I miss you every minute of every day.

M y very first real chef job in the early 1990s was in a charming little restaurant located in an old farmhouse on a rural highway in Ontario, Canada. I was the morning and lunch chef, and my job included baking all the bread, rolls, and desserts for service. This meant arriving at 4 a.m. five days a week and working solo until the rest of the staff meandered in at 9:30 a.m. We had no fancy mixer with a dough hook or proofing drawers. I was lucky when the oven didnt blow my eyebrows off when I manually lit the gas each morning. I required all that extra time because I kneaded all the dough by handand that takes a long time.

So, I gathered my ingredients, put a suitably rocking 80s song on the boom box, and got to work. I can tell you that kneading bread dough is hard workand excellent therapy if your life isnt going well. You push and pummel, using every muscle in your shoulders, arms, forearms, and fingers to get the perfect texture. There is a satisfying moment when the dough seems to come alive under your hands, suddenly elastic and almost silky. When you stretch it between your fingers, it is translucent. This is called the windowpane test, although at the time I didnt know it had a name. After kneading, I set bowls and bowls of covered dough all around my drafty kitchen to rise, each batch finishing at a different time. The smell of active yeast permeated my hair and clothes for the rest of the day.

At around 9 a.m., my bread baking was complete and the golden stacked loaves and piles of buns formed into pretty knots adorned the kitchen. Rarely in my life have I experienced the quiet pride and sense of accomplishment all that perfectly baked fragrant bread produced. That feeling of satisfaction is what this book is about. I want you to create beautiful loaves of bread that delight you, but without all the backbreaking work. You might already be a veteran bread baker or maybe are new to this world of yeast and flour. No matter your experience level, you will find a wealth of information and tempting recipes in these chapters.

Lets consider the term artisan bread. There is no real definition or regulation in a culinary sense of what artisan means, just a vague idea of what people think it should mean. For some, the term signifies strict ingredients and procedures. Serious artisan bread bakers might use only four ingredientsflour, water, salt, and yeastand not ordinary yeast or flour, only wild yeast () and hand-milled flours. Then, the bread is baked in a handmade oven or specialty oven of some sort to mimic ancient techniques. The commitment to this version of artisan is commendable and the bread produced is unique, but for most home bakers, this process is not feasible. So, artisan bread in the scope of this book encompasses traditional bread made with quality ingredients, no preservatives, and with carea broader scope than the four-ingredient template used by some purists. All recipes are baked in a bread machine or prepped in the bread machine and baked in a traditional oven. Ultimately, artisan bread in this book is defined by the skill, time, and love put into its creation.

Because bread is so readily available everywhere, even in little convenience stores on the corner, why take the time to make our own bread? The main reason most people make their own bread is the satisfaction and pleasure of taking a fragrant, golden loaf of bread out of the oven or bread maker knowing you created it with your own hands. There is something almost primal being part of such an incredible history, stretching back thousands of years to the first people who added water to pounded plant fibers and cooked this mixture on a hot rock by a fire. Now, bread machines are a long way from hot stones and ingredients have evolved, but that satisfaction of creation is still evident and rewarding.

Another reason to make your own bread is the control you have over the ingredients, eliminating strange chemical compounds, dyes, and preservatives. Anyone on a special diet can attest to the difficulty of finding high quality bread in a supermarket that suits your specific needs. This is also important if you or a family member has allergies and cannot have ingredients such as dairy or nuts. Making your own bread can save you money as well, probably just a dollar here and a dollar there, but that can add up over time. You pay for not only the bread but also the packaging and labor of the baker when you purchase a commercially prepared loaf.

Unless you buy specialty loaves with heaps of ingredients and no additives, homemade bread is more nutritious and better tasting than most store-bought options. There is, undoubtedly, delicious bread available from talented bakers committed to creating unique quality bread, but you will pay more for that product. Homemade bread is usually higher in protein, healthy carbs, and fiber as well as vitamins and minerals. The texture and taste of your own bread are often superior because it is handcrafted a single loaf or two at a time rather than mass-produced. This attention and care are what designate home-baked bread as artisan bread.

As stated earlier, there is no official definition of the word artisan concerning food, and, often, the label is used more for marketing purposes than a description of the actual product. When you think of artisan bread, I will bet you conjure an image of a thickly crusted, slightly irregular loaf, maybe with a scattering of seeds or asymmetrical slashes across the top. This is certainly a good depictionbut not the only one. This lovely imagined loaf was hand processed, made with carefully chosen high quality ingredients, and created in small batchesthe same way you would make bread in your own kitchen, utilizing a bread machine for the dough or whole loaf. Artisan bread bakers continuously advance their skills, tweak the recipes, and improve their techniques, as will you over the course of your breadmaking journey. A bread machine just makes it possible for you to create gorgeous artisan bread and do everything else you need to do in your life.