The Meatloaf Lady: Meatloaf Lady's Sinful Secret...

Lady's and Gents, I am having a secret affair. I have to hide from the hubs on a daily basis. I am OBSESSED with...bread. There. I said it. It's out in the open. Ahh, I feel a little better now.

Having spent the last few years working out my dough recipes and playing with all kinds of flour, I have discovered a KEY to the best bread.

DON'T USE ALL OF THE RECOMMENDED FLOUR IF YOU DON'T NEED IT!!!!

A lot of new bread makers, this lady included, fear the loaf. It's a whole science and art combo that can be a bit intimidating from the get go. So to impress the teacher and get the A+ on our baking skills, we try so hard to follow the recipe to a tee.

Here is the problem, HUMIDITY is different, not only from region to region, but household to household, bakery to bakery, and even bedroom to bedroom (WINK WINK). So what's with the humidity? Well, it can make or break your dough. Humidity plus a great rise to your dough. Humidity minus, well since they differ so much, one bread maker's 3 Cups of flour may be the equivalent of another bread maker's 2 and 1/4-3/4 Cups due to the moisture in the air.

Say you follow a recipe to a tee, rise your dough perfectly, shape it, rise it again, and cook for just the right amount of time, and as you are slicing that first slice that should have a wonderful "hole-y" consistency, you instead cut through a very DENSE soft brick.

"Oh Gods! Where did I go wrong? How could you be so cruel? You took three hours of my day, taunting me with you incredible aroma for the last 45 minutes, only to be a doughy brick on my counter? WHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

Snap out of it! Make French Toast. Sheesh.

You didn't feel your dough. That's the tip here, FEEL YOUR DOUGH. If you want a sturdy sandwich bread, then you want your dough to be firm. If you want light and airy breads, then you want your dough to be just that, light and airy. It should feel like a soft gooey pillow of flour, yeast and water.

The best way to achieve these types of dough is to reserve some of your flour, until you FEEL YOUR DOUGH. I will usually hold a 1/4 to the side and use it on the bench as necessary. Another thing to keep in mind is not to OVERWORK your dough. Give it a rest. Once you mix your dough, be it in a mixer (Oh how I wish) or by hand, turn it out onto a LIGHTLY floured surface and give it a break for ten minutes or so. Now, lightly floured, really means just a thin layer of flour to keep your dough from sticking.

After resting, kneading with your hands should only take about 3-4 minutes. Then you are ready to rise until doubled in size. As far as punching down and going for a second rise goes, it really is optional contingent on the type of bread. Generally, if I am working on a sourdough or a sandwich style bread, then I will go for the second rise. Dough that I have already infused with flavors or I really want a quick bake on, I will rise 'em, punch 'em, rest 'em then bake away. I will say this though, I have yet to make a loaf with self-rising flour, so I will have to get back to you on my thoughts regarding rises with that.

Baking. Wonder why your bread doesn't come out like "Wonder Bread"? Well aside from the different preservatives and different flour and such, there is also the pesky detail of convection vs. conventional oven. A conventional oven is pure heat. A convection oven periodically puffs out moisture into the heat, again utilizing HUMIDITY! There is a trick to compensate for this...H2O. By adding water to the conventional oven WHILE baking, you can add the moisture to help your crust be tender and your dough to cook out fluffy. You can do this several ways:

Adding a shallow pan of boiling pan of water to a lower rack of your oven can create enough moisture.

Baking your bread on a sheet pan, on a cooling rack, on a cake pan half filled with water can also add enough moisture.

My method...Chuck 1/3- 1/2 Cup of water onto the floor of your oven and watch it steam as you SHUT THE DOOR!

Now whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR until you are removing your bread. This would allow the moisture to escape, and defeat the whole purpose of the extra step taken to add the water in the first place.

Well, this is as OCD about bread baking as I am going to get for now. I absolutely welcome new ideas, questions, comments, postings of the color of your ceiling...you know whatever you want to say! Write away!

Since you have been so wonderful reading to this point, I'm gonna give you a little gift ;)

Herb Focaccia Breadsticks

YUMMO!

2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour (member don't use it all if you don't need it)

1 Cup Warm Water (Body Temp warm is perfect)

1/4 Cup Parmesan (Shredded, Grated..your call)

3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 TBSP Granulated Sugar

1 TBSP Garlic Powder

1 TBSP Herbes de Provence (You can also use an Italian herb mix of your liking)

1 TBSP Fresh Cracked Pepper or 1 tsp Ground Pepper

2 1/4 tsp Rapid Rise Yeast

1 tsp Salt

In a bowl, combine yeast

and the sugar

and 1/2 of the WARM water.

Be patient and allow your yeast to eat its dinner, and in about 10 minutes it will be belching and bubbly and ready to go to work fluffing up your dough.

In another large bowl, combine 2 1/4 Cups of your flour,