It's Hot Outside, so I'm Going to... Bake Bread

No, of course it doesn't make sense, but this is what I do. I get an idea into my head and I go through with it - even if I have a headache, which I had Monday night when I baked bread. I bought more active yeast over the weekend because I plan on baking bread a lot. I make my own yogurt, so why shouldn't I bake my own bread? Having baked it now, I think it's delicious and kind of don't want to buy bread ever again. 

Because I don't have loaf pans, I Googled "baking bread in a Pyrex bowl" and found this recipe: My Mother's Peasant Bread from Alexandra's Kitchen. I had all the ingredients so I whipped it up. The dough was incredibly wet and did not rise as much as I think it should have, but the bread still came out great. I cut the bowl-bread in half and put half in the fridge and half in the freezer. I cut the faux foccacia into 2" x 2" squares and put half of those into the fridge and half in the freezer. I'll have bread for at least two weeks, if not longer. Yay! 

 The wet dough, before punching it down.

The Pyrex bowl and 9" x 13" baking dish while rising.  

The finished products! The one on the left side is the faux foccacia. I did not follow the directions completely and left out the olive oil and rosemary so that I could use this for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The bread would be delicious with olive oil and rosemary - maybe next time.... The round loaf is very buttery and I was afraid it'd be stuck in the bowl because I baked the dough in the same bowl I mixed it in. Mixing the dough in the bowl incorporates some of the butter into the dough, instead of leaving it on the bowl as a greasing agent. So next time I may use a separate bowl to mix the dough and then plop the dough into the greased bowl for baking; the loaves certainly did not "fall out" of the Pyrex like Alexandra says they should. 

The next morning I had a fried egg, piece of cheese, and a toasted slice of the bowl loaf with Vegemite for breakfast! A very filling breakfast; I usually get hungry around 10, 10:30 but this kept me going until 11:30 when I had some green pepper sticks and a couple figs from my friend's garden and the community orchard in the Seventh Ward. We were weeding the tree pits and she comes over and hands me a pinkish little blob, saying "The first fig!" So I ate it (I have had figs off the tree in New Orleans before) and it was scrumptious. 

Now I have some mushy figs in my fridge... what to do with those... 

In other news I bought fancy artisan chocolate at Whole Foods today. It was on sale! It's quite delicious chocolate and was so odd (and so on sale) that I just had to try it. I am a choco-holic, fo' sho.