Bread

Many shapes of my Onion-Rosemary bread. A nice crispy shell and a soft dense interior.

Ok, so after 3 wonderful years in the Rainier Club kitchen, I packed up my knives, turned in my apron and said goodbye to the wonderful people there. See, I got married and shortly, I will be moving to England. As I await my departure, I find myself with time on my hands. I start to miss and long for the hectic and weird hours of a cook where 24 hours was never enough. Yet, at the same time, I think back to times when I did work like a dog rushing, chasing the clock, doing anything just to be ready for service, coming home dead tired, and wishing for just one day off when I can take my time and make a good artisan bread or practice chocolate tempering skills or hell, even make a roast that I can actually eat! So I figured, now is THAT time. Once I'm in England, I'll be in another restaurant's kitchen in no time surely, so what better time to do "things you would do if you had a day off" stuff than NOW.

Today, I made yeast bread. I chose to do rosemary and onion bread partly because I like those flavors and partly also because I had lots of left over rosemary and onions from a dinner I threw the night before.

I am not a trained baker or pastry chef. I studied bread making for only a week in cooking school, and my pastry expertise comes from only experience. But I always love a perfectly made bread: nice crisp crust on the outside and soft chewy and flavorful on the inside. Baking is a science but like cooking, if you have the methodology, the idea, then you'll succeed. My bread recipe is a simple single rise recipe. The resulting bread is very dense hearty and flavor packed. Right out of the oven, It is great plain or with just butter. Day old, it should be nice dipped in a sauce or a soup.

I had a great time making it. I will be making more!

Method:

Saute some onions and chop some fresh rosemary

Sprinkle dry active yeast in warm water between 105 -115 degrees F

Add Rosemary, some salt and some sugar

Add sauteed onions and some wheat flour

Finally add enough AP flour to have a soft dough.

Knead for 5 minutes

Proof for 1 hour

Punch and shape

Bake at 400 degrees F until done!