I haven’t baked in forever and a day. Typically summer days don’t mix with hot ovens but since I forgot to pick up sandwich rolls I figured I’d bake my own.
I put the starter on last night to get an early start in the morning. The recipe is from Bouchon, a cook book with a wealth of inspiration to inspire the novice baker to try her hand at a multitude of delicious baked goods. I’ve made this simple batard recipe over the years with wonderful results.
The ingredients are simple; flour, yeast, water and a bit of salt. The one thing in the list that you won’t find is the most important ingredient and sometime the hardest to find – Time. You have to make the proof 12 or so hours beforehand (overnight works great) and then ample time to let the soft dough rise three times.
Tip: if your in a hurry skip the batard recipe and go for a quicker bread recipe. But I can’t promise it will taste as good.
To be honest there is a special flare to shaping bread and this is not a post about that. Since I’m after sandwich rolls you see that I used my pastry scraper to slice the shapes I was after and then set the dough to rise one last time.
Tip: to get the crunchy , golden crust make sure your oven is up to temperature and add water to the a pan in the bottom of the oven for steam. This gives your bread a beautiful bite and heavenly softness on the inside.
The scent was too much to resist to hold out for the rolls to cool completely before I tore into one examining the soft insides against the chewy crust before spreading some butter, that I had made earlier in the week, onto the torn piece and popping it into my mouth. Yummmm.
To say the least I’m happy with the bake.
Sending you love and happiness.
❤️