You can shoot me if you don’t agree this is the easiest and best bread recipe you’ve ever tried. If, indeed, you have ever tried any.
I have planned to so this post forEVER. Well, at least since last April — which seems like forever. I did the Ciabatta Recipe, and the Crackerbread Recipe…
Oh my gosh! I just realized that I never actually did a blog post for the crackerbread. It only exists on youtube! How funny.
Anyway, I started this whole bread thing as videos, and then quickly realized that videos are a pain in the ass! Editing takes forever, upload takes forever. When I realize I forgot to film something, or I run out of batteries (always) it’s such a pain to reshoot it, re-edit it… you get the picture. So, for most everything else, I’ve moved to still-picture storytelling. For bread though, I think it’s worth it to show video. And that’s why it took me so long to do. The video still isn’t perfect, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it never will be. Not while I’m living this life. So please try not to be too critical of the fact that I never actually show the bread going into and coming out of the oven, there are three finished loaves instead of four, Etc. Etc.
This is the very first successful bread I ever made. I bought The Best Bread Ever, by Charles Van Over when I got my new Cuisinart food processor about 6 years ago. I had tried and tried to make rustic loaves prior to the discovery of this book and I have to tell you: it was an utter failure. No matter how I tried (and I tried, and tried, and tried), my loaves were pathetic, dense, ugly beasts. Oh sure, they tasted OK, but I tend to think of myself as invincible. Please note that I am not a perfectionist. That’s something else entirely. No. What I mean to say is that I have an inflated ego. So when I come up against something that I fail at, it makes me really, really mad. I can’t say I totally gave up on making bread, but I shelved it for a while.
Until I bought the Cuisinart.
When I opened the box, it came with the standard instruction manual with some recipes in it. (I confess: I am a manual reader.) When I was reading it, I saw this totally bizarre bread recipe. Having made countless loaves the traditional way — proof the yeast in warm/tepid/not hot/not cold/not below 110/not above 120/GiveMeABreak water — I thought the Cuisinart recipe must be a mistake. It listed the recipe source as having come from, The Best Bread Ever. So, I googled it to see what I could find out. Turns out, the book was out of print, but I found a used copy. This guy has researched the food processor technique ad nauseam. He has so much information and such detailed directions, it would make your head spin. And no, the recipe was not in error. Genius: you don’t have to proof the yeast!
But what I love about it: the recipes work every single time. Even when I forget about the dough and it bursts out of it’s container. Even when I put it in the refrigerator for 2 days. Every single time. It is so fast and easy. Seriously. You’ve got to try it. Hands on, it takes about 15 minutes to make dough and shape loaves, a couple hours of rise time and 10-15 minutes to bake. I very rarely have to even look at it anymore. But I still covet it. Thank you, Charles Van Over. You made a bread-maker out of me.
So get off the damn computer and go try it.
Watch the video:
And, here’s the recipe with written instructions to print: