First Loaf

Somebody needs a baking rack. Ah, well, knives on top of paper towel on a cutting board will do for now.

It's pretty though, isn't it?

I would have to pick the first day of using AC to bake no-knead bread, wouldn't I? I'm woefully sweating, as we keep the airco at 80º just to take the humidity out of the air. A 450º oven isn't very helpful on a day like today.

The process of making this bread didn't go smoothly. Sure, whomping the ingredients together and leaving them overnight was just fine. But when I turned the dough out this morning it was so wet as to be more like batter than dough. Is that what's supposed to happen?

I had to work in probably another whole cup of flour just to make it workable, and in the process of doing so ended up kneading anyway. Not much. Maybe 10 passes or so. But still. I was (and still am) concerned I messed something way up.

The coating on the bottom is ground up flax seeds. I fear that may have been a bad choice, because the house smells more like burned fish oil than bread. Thankfully, there was enough flour on the outside of the loaf as to shield the loaf from the flax seeds.

I don't have high hopes with this loaf, but I'll survive. I know that part of my pessimism is due to being spoiled by others' no-knead breads. Like the olive loaf Maria's sweet David made for her party yesterday.

Oh my, I'm hungry.