Bread

For me, a handful of food smells evoke real positive feelings. Frying garlic, brewing coffee, and steaming rice are among some that excite. But somehow, nothing taps the oldest of memories than the smell of baking bread . I'm talking memories of the time I was six or seven years old, walking the suburbs of Manila with parent, to the nearest bakery to buy the morning's fresh Pandesal, or the time I was a teenage driving to a Vietnamese sandwich place in San Jose California for some Banh Mi, the smell of fresh baguette always filled the air, or the time I was a cooking student in Seattle, walking the streets of Belltown, passing by Macrina or Dahlia Bakery at 6am, and always wanting to linger because of the scent of fresh baked bread.

Fresh bread is cheap to make and require only three or four basic ingredients that I sometimes wonder why I don't do it more often. Yes making really good bread takes good practice but a good no-fail recipe helps. So now, with the gift of time on my hands, I was able to make a loaf today. I picked up a dead simple recipe and, would you know it, it actually worked the first try without any modifications whatsoever.





1lb flour, pinch salt, 7 oz. (1 sachet) fast acting yeast, 11 oz. lukewarm water, 1 beaten egg are all it needs. 40-minute proof time in the baking tin, and 30-minute oven time in a hot 220degree Celsius (210 Celsius convection, or 430 Fahrenheit) oven is all the time it takes. The resulting loaf had a nice crispy crust with medium thickness and a nice dense interior.