pursuit of the perfect artisan bread loaf

This past year, I've been working on my artisan bread making. Not from a sourdough starter. Just a simple bread flour, yeast, water, salt mix. Here are the two most important things I've learned:

1) You do not need to buy a single item. Not one. Nadda.

Here are some of the many things your friends, family, YouTubers, bloggers, or companies will say you will need...

Banneton basket - This is a single use item in your kitchen that takes up a lot of space. Instead use a mixing bowl you already have, drape a flour sack towel inside that has been dusted with a little flour. Or, use a round basket you already have laying around, lining it in the same way. (See a photo below of a basket that I picked up for $1.50 at a thrift store years ago that gets used on a daily basis to hold my onions. And, on bread making day, it gets used to rise dough).

 

Lamé - Again, this is a single use item in your kitchen. It doesn't take up a lot of space and sometimes you can pick one up cheaply for $10 (most are $25-40). However, why add something to your kitchen you don't actually need? Instead, score the top of your dough with kitchen shears, a loose razor blade you have in your hardware drawer already (not used and clean), or even a really sharp knife.

Dutch oven - If you already own a 5 or 6 quart dutch oven that you use for other things, great! You're all set. But, do not purchase a dutch oven just because you think you need one to bake artisan bread. I bought a clay baker, which is similar to a dutch oven in that its domed lid contains the high humidity and heat to create the perfect environment for rising and browning (see photo below). However, I regret buying a clay baker. It is heavy and takes up a lot of storage space in my kitchen when not in use. If I was to do it again, I would use a soup pot instead (ensuring I removed the plastic handles). There are also other methods that you can easily learn to create that humidity such as putting a pan of water in the bottom of your oven while baking. 

 

So, the point is...just get started. Don't get hung up on feeling that you need these things before you get started. Or, that your bread is not going to turn out as good without them. If you're ever in doubt about whether you need to buy something new, remind yourself of the bare bones kitchens of long ago - before electricity, while settlers were carrying their belongings in a wagon across the prairie or living in a rustic cabin, or even the French woman of today who prefer minimal gadgets!

2) You can create a wonderful bread without kneading, and with just one rise.

The result is going to be more like a really good sandwich bread versus being airy. You don't need to aspire to a holey sourdough crumb in order to enjoy really good bread. Keep it easy for yourself. You can make this bread frequently throughout the week, without having to adjust your schedule or stress yourself out feeding a starter and kneading and rising the dough multiple times. It only takes about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish so having the ingrained knowledge to make a simple bread allows you to throw it together when company is coming over as well. 

Simple Artisan Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Equipment: medium/large mixing bowl, wooden spoon, flour sack towel (or any lightweight towel you have on hand), preferred vessel for rise (banneton, bowl, or basket), preferred cutting instrument for scoring (lame, knife, or straight edge blade, for example), preferred baking vessel (dutch oven, clay baker, soup pot, or baking sheet/soup pot combo)

Ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/4 cup of very warm water 

3 cups bread flour (can sub out 1/2 cup golden wheat if you would like)

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups very warm water

Instructions:

1) Put 1/4 cup of very warm water (almost where it's getting too hot to touch) in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for ten minutes or so to allow the yeast to bloom in the water while you get your other ingredients ready.

2) Add the remaining ingredients to the yeast water.

3) Mix with a wooden spoon. It will be shaggy and wet. If it does not appear wet, add a little more water, a few tablespoons at a time. (It will typically look drier when you use partial wheat flour as that sucks water up much quicker than bread or white flour). It's important to ensure it is wet enough at this stage because the rise is really dependent on the ability for the dough to flex and grow.

4) Use your hands to shape the dough into a loose ball. Place the dough ball into your rising vessel that you have lined with a lightly floured flour sack towel. Gently tuck the top of the towel loosely over the top of the dough, which will help it from drying out while it rises.

5) Place the rising vessel in a warm spot. My house is typically only sixty degrees fahrenheit, so I put it by a sunny window just out of the direct sunlight. If it is an overcast, or particularly chilly day, I have also put it in the oven with just the oven light on.

6) After it has doubled in size (takes 1/2 hour to 1 hour), you are ready to bake! Oil the bottom of your baking vessel or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into a ball again (no need to knead) and place it on the oil or parchment paper lined bottom of your baking vessel. Put the lid on your vessel (or cover it with a towel) and let rise for another 30 minutes or so. Set your oven to preheat to 450 degrees, making sure you have moved the oven rack down to the second from the bottom ledge to give your baking vessel enough room.

7) After 30 minutes have passed, dust the top of the dough ball with a generous amount of flour, and score the top of the dough with your preferred scoring tool. (If you're having a hard time getting the tool to cut through the dough, you most likely need to add more flour to the top of the dough ball).

8) Put the lid back on your baking vessel and place in your preheated oven. Set a timer for 35 minutes.

9) After the 35 minutes have passed, take the lid off of the baking vessel, leaving the bottom of the vessel and dough still in the oven, and let it bake for another 6 minutes or so, keeping an eye on the darkness of the top crust to determine when it is ready to come out. 

10) Remove from the oven and let sit for at least 20 minutes before cutting. 

This seems like a lot of steps. But, actual hands on time is only about 10 minutes. Before you know it, you'll be baking bread without even thinking about the steps.

Note: if you aren't ready to bake your bread after the first rise, you can put it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Just be sure to have it in a large enough bowl as it will rise more while it's in the fridge and you don't want it to spill out of whatever bowl you have it in. Also, make sure you have a tight fitting lid on your bowl, not just a towel, so the dough doesn't dry out. When you're ready to bake it, let it sit out for 15 minutes or so to warm up a bit. Then, shape it into a ball and proceed to step 6.

Let me know if you have any questions! Or, if you have your own bread baking tips you'd like to share!

RECYCLING 101

Image via City of Newcastle, WA

We all want to take our part in treating our home (earth) well. We've begun using reusable straws, finding alternatives to plastic storage for our food, and recycling. In recent years, I've gotten into a lot of conversations with people about how to recycle - Whether you need to wash the food out and peel the labels off, whether all plastic and paper is recyclable, etc. I did some research to answer some of these same questions I was having myself!

In the 90's, what is known as single stream recycling began being implemented. And, by 2012 almost all collectors were using this method. The goal was to encourage more people to participate in recycling by making it easier for them (allowing all types of recyclable items to be put into one single bin vs. needing to separate your paper into one bin, your plastic in another, your glass in another, and so on). Other advantages of the single stream method are that less space is needed to store multiple recycling bins, further increasing participating. And, it is easier and cheaper for the recycling to be collected since the waste haulers don't need to come multiple different times to collect, or have a way to separate the items in the truck.

There is limited data, and therefore research, on recycling, however, the benefit of getting more people to recycle may have been overtaken by the cost - On average, about 25% of the stuff we try and recycle is too contaminated to go anywhere but the landfill. For the past 25 years, much of what was left of the paper, metals, and plastic that were able to be separated and baled, we had been sending to China instead of recycling it on our own. However, beginning in January 2018, China refused to take any more unless it is 99.5% free of contaminants. It was never never a good solution to off-load our recycling to China. But, now that cities are faced with the task of coming up with solutions here at home, in some places the recycling we're separating out is going to the landfill. Some other cities in the US (as well as other countries) are switching to dual-stream collection. 

Whether or not your city has single-stream collection or has (or is moving to) a dual stream collection, what is most important is the quality of the recycling you are putting out. Remember we spoke about how roughly 1 in 4 items placed in a recycling container is actually not recyclable through curbside programs? This significantly raises the costs to process the recycling and in some instances makes the recyclables now trash, even if some of the load is not contaminated. For examples, Waste Management says, "when food or liquids are placed in a recycling container they will ultimately saturate tons of otherwise good paper and cardboard that they come into contact with. When paper and cardboard loses its quality, it also loses its ability to be recycled. It becomes trash." Waste Management also shares a lot of this is because, "Products and packaging have become more complex. This complexity has in many ways altered consumers' understanding of what they think is recyclable. More and more, non-recyclables are finding their way into single-stream containers - things like plastic bags, organic matter (food, liquid, and yard waste), rubber hoses, wires, and low-grade plastics." 

I found this fantastic resource listing out the most common contaminants to recycling and how to avoid them...

1) PLASTIC BAGS - Plastic bags and items made from their plastic material (i.i. shrink wrap, bubble wrap, Ziploc bags, newspaper bags, trash bags, etc.) are the worst recycling contaminator of all. Keep them out of the bin to save the sorters at your local recycling facility a huge amount of extra work while also saving their machines the hassle of getting clogged. Helpful hint! - Drop your plastic bags (if recyclable) off at the grocery store collection bins (specific for just bags) so they are still recycled, but don't contaminate any other recyclables.

2) FOOD WASTE - Otherwise recyclable items quickly become garbage when they carry the remnants of the food they once held. Some great examples of food waste contamination can be found in paperboard take-home boxes full of food and the recyclable jar/can that hasn't been emptied or rinsed out. 

3) LOOSE SHREDDED PAPER - While shredded paper is not considered a contaminant as a whole, loose shredded paper can cause many recycling issues. When shredded paper is mixed in with non-shredded paper, it is difficult to recover for recycling. To fix this, keep it in a separate paper bag that is clearly marked. 

4) BRIGHTLY COLORED PAPER - The problem with brightly colored paper is the analogy of the red-sock-in-the-white-load. That paints a pretty good picture of what happens when brightly colored paper manages to spoil a batch of good paper recycling. If you tear the colored paper in question and you see white in the center it is recyclable. If the color dye goes all the way through then you're unfortunately out of luck.

5) SOME BEVERAGE CARTONS - Some municipal programs accept beverage cartons as recyclable while others might not. When in doubt you have two options - Check with your specific municipal recycling program's manager to find out if the carton is on their 'yes' or 'no' list or add the cartons to your recyclables since they are easy to separate out. 

6) THE WRONG PLASTICS - Some recycling programs might accept plastics #1-7 but the final rejection is decided at the sorting facility. Rejection of plastics usually comes down to the type of plastic being recycled and what it once contained. Food containers are usually ok. Containers that once held non-food items should be checked to determine the type of plastic it's considered. For instance, the most common recycled plastics are #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE). Plastics #3 through #7 are sometimes recyclable. To see if your item is one of the above mentioned locate the chasing arrows symbol (usually on the bottom of the bottle). 

7) HAZARDOUS WASTE - Containers for paint, automotive fluids, or pesticides must be disposed of separately or, for some facilities, cleaned out before they can be recycled. Check with your local recycling and/or household hazardous waste program manager to determine the methods necessary to make sure these items can be recycled.

8) BIO-HAZARDOUS WASTE (AND DIAPERS) - If you are trying to recycle something that has any human fluid on it, don't. Syringes, needles, diapers, and any other sanitary product are not recyclable and can be potentially dangerous to handle.

9) FROZEN FOOD CONTAINERS - The shiny, exterior coating that those boxes have to prevent freezer burn actually prevents the paper from being recyclable.

10) UNRINSED OR METAL-CAPPED GLASS - Before you recycle that wine or beer bottle, give it a quick rinse. The excess liquid can contaminate other papers in the recycling and render them non-recyclable. Metal caps on glass containers simply need to be put in the bin separately from the containers they top.

This list also outlines in more detail the do's and don't for each type of material...

PAPER AND CARDBOARD
DO's

• corrugated cardboard (boxes)
• magazines
• office paper
• newspapers
• paperboard (cereal boxes)
• paper cardboard dairy/juice cartons (in limited areas only)
• unsolicited direct mail (even window envelopes are ok)
• phone books

DON'TS

• waxed paper
• food contaminated paper (such as a cheese-encrusted pizza box)
• mixed metal and paper (like stapled paper - just remove the staple and the paper can be recycled)

METALS
DO'S

• aluminum cans
• foil and aluminum bakeware
• steel cans and tins (rinsed-out soup cans, veggie cans, coffee cans, etc.)
• wire coat hangers
• empty aerosol cans

DON'TS

• food-contaminated metals (like a half-eaten can of beans - rinse out the beans and the can is good to recycle!)
• automotive parts
• plumbing parts
• paint cans with wet or dried-on paint (inquire how to properly dispose)
• electronics (inquire for how to properly dispose)

GLASS
DO'S

• clear glass (rinsed mayonnaise containers, pasta sauces, pickle jars, etc.)
• brown amber glass typically used for beer
• green bottles typically used for wine

DON'TS

• any glass contaminated with stones, dirt, and food waste
• ceramics, such as dishwater, ovenware, and decorative items
• heat-resistance glass, such as Pyrex
• mixed colors of broken glass
• mirror or window glass
• metal or plastic caps, corks, or lids
• crystal
• light bulbs (inquire how to properly dispose)
• cathode-ray tubes found in some televisions and computer monitors (inquire how to properly dispose)

PLASTIC

One important thing to keep in mind as you recycle plastics is cleanliness is essential. One dirty product, or one with food waste still in it, can contaminate an entire bale containing thousands of pounds of collected plastics. Some municipalities accept all types of plastic. Others accept only containers with certain numbers stamped on them. Still others accept only products with specific resin codes that also are bottles (having a neck that's narrower than the body).

TYPICAL DO'S

• Make sure it's clean!
• Products labeled #1 and #2 are widely accepted at recycling facilities. These typically include soft drink and soda bottles, plastic from cereal boxes, containers for salad dressing, vegetable oil, and peanut butter, oven-ready meal trays, butter and margarine tubs, and containers for laundry detergent and some household cleaners.

TYPICAL DON'TS

• Municipalities differ on whether to accept products labeled with #4 and #5. These typically include squeezable bottles, bread wrappers, frozen food bags, dry cleaning bags, yogurt containers, syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, some straws, and prescription bottles.
• Plastic grocery and produce sacks are commonly, but not always, made from plastics #2 and #4. Do not put these with your curbside recycling. These bags are often collected at barrels at grocery stores.
• Products labeled with #3, #6, or #7 are less often accepted for recycling. These typically include window cleaner and dishwashing detergent bottles, some shampoo bottles, cooking oil bottles, clear food packaging, plastics used in most blister packs, disposable coffee cups, polystyrene, plastic egg cartons, aspirin bottles, and compact disc cases.

And, back to the big question of whether labels need to be removed...they do not! The high heat in today's recycling technology will burn away labels and glue. The only reason you might want to remove the labels is to recycle the label themselves! Those can go in the bin with your other paper recycling. And, an even better option is to reuse the containers instead of recycling it!