HBin5-Bread Braid Challenge: Master recipe-first try

We have begun. On Sat Jan 16 we made our first batch of the HBin5 Master Recipe. It was very straight forward to put together and after a 3 hour rise it filled the [6 qt] bread bucket...very exciting, its always nice when things work out the way they are supposed to.

After letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight, it was time to bake our first loaf of bread. We weighed out one pound let it sit for 90-minutes and then baked it for 30-minutes at 450 deg. The result is shown in the picture.

Our first impressions of the recipe are that it was a bit yeasty, but it had a nice crust and crumb. All in all we feel like we are off to a good start, and are looking forward to the journey ahead as we work through the other recipes in the book.

After all there is little better than a warm fresh baked slice of bread on a snowy winter day.

HB in Five: Bread Braid Challenge

After buying the Book "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois at our favorite local cookbook store: Rabelais, we joined the group HBin5 that will be baking through the book throughout 2010. We love bread and we have not been baking much of it the last few years and so we thought this would get us back in the swing of baking more and eating better.

We picked up all the basic necessities as suggested by the group and in the book: Flour (we are using King Arthur flours), Vital Wheat Gluten (Hodgson Mills), 6 qt. food grade container with lid, and a pizza peel.

We have the book, we have the equipment, and we are ready to go!