Weekly Food News (The Bread Issue)

September 17, 2008 by Alex Nicholson  Send to a Friend

This week we’ve got a few openings to mention and then I felt like making bread.

• Celebrity Chef Michael Mina will be opening one of his Bourbon Steak restaurants in the Georgetown Four Seasons. The restaurant will take over the downstairs garden terrace, sounds lovely. 
• Busboys and Poets is opening a third location in the new City Vista complex downtown. If you haven’t gone to the new Safeway down there yet, use this as your excuse. Seriously, best grocery store in DC. They have a Starbucks, a massive wine section with a wine steward and on opening day they were giving out iPod shuffles like they were going out of style. I did not congratulate the person in front of me who won.

Step 2 - Add Wet Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of beer, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and 4 teaspoons of honey. The beer should just be a light beer you have on hand. I use Miller Lite, my dad swears by Corona. If you really want, you can even use all beer and no water.

Step 3 - The Dough, First Rise: Mix it, use your hands. It’ll feel dry and shaggy. Don’t work it too hard, just make sure everything is mixed in. Cover it and leave it alone for 8-18 hours. I’ll do this before going to bed and then finishing the process when I get home from work.

Step  4 - The Dough, Second Rise: Come back to your dough and it’ll have doubled. Now, punch it down and form a ball. Keep it in the same bowl and cover it back up. In two hours it’ll rise again and you’ll bake it.

Step 5 - The Oven: The trick to baking this is making an oven inside your oven. I use a Le Creuset cast-iron enamel Dutch oven, but any heavy cast iron or enamel pot with a lid will work. Be mindful it it has anything plastic on it. I unscrew the plastic knob on my lid and stuff the little hole with some foil. I’m telling you all this because 30 minutes before you bake your bread you need to stick this dish in a 500 degree oven. It’ll heat up in there for half and hour.

Step 6 - Baking: Take your ridiculously hot Dutch oven out of the oven and set it on the stove. I dust the bottom of the dish with a little flour or corn flour, don’t feel like you have to. At this point I’ll gingerly flip the dough into the pot, give it another dusting and a quick slash of the knife. You’ll hear the dough start to cook, just get the lid on and throw the pot in the oven. Drop the heat to 425 and walk away for 30 minutes. After the half hour, just take the lid off sothe loaf can brown. The bread will be done in 10 minutes.

Step 7 - Eating: Let the bread rest for two hours if you can. You’ll have a perfect crust that seems to shatter, a hard bottom that you can knock to hear that satisfying hollow sound and the inside will have a beautiful crumb, good texture and flavorful taste. Seriously delicious, especially since you made it yourself. This’ll keep for a few days so don’t worry. Just wrap it in foil so it doesn’t dry out.  And if it does’t come out perfect the first time don’t worry, it took me three tries before I was knocking these things out regularly.

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