Breaking Bread
A take on the ritual of weekly bakes by Angel Xu
I find it ironic that my love for breadbaking didn’t start in the pandemic. In fact, I was turned off from it because I could not breathe life into my first sourdough starter and even with the help of a friend’s starter, my bakes were always subpar and I was stressed out by the upkeep.
A few months ago, quite randomly, I got comfortable with measuring in grams on a scale and put my measuring cups away + ordered 2 bags of flour, 1 AP and 1 bread. I got sent a focaccia recipe from Lily (formally of Busboy - hey girl!) and somehow I was able to lock TF in. I also give credit to Tiktok creator/Substacker
whose DITL as a private caterer got me hyperfixated on her videos, specifically the focaccia ones.
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Since then, I’ve baked at least 1 focaccia a week and found major success in this realm.
Look at that crumb!! I’ve been eating focaccia as the carb with breakfast. It’s made an incredibly full meal that keeps me going until at least 1 PM. Scrambled eggs, chicken apple sausage, a scoop of cottage cheese + bread = perfection.
Earlier this week, I also attempted a braided bake. I think I need to move my rack higher up in the oven but I’ll continue to workshop this one.
Where am I am in this new gluten filled world of mine? Figuring out a good Rye bread recipe. I have tried the Rye recipe on King Arthur Baking but I found that I had little to no rise and it was still extremely dense. I tried this twice to no avail.
My Favorite Bakes to Date:
Aurora James’ Banana Bread Recipe - I did bake this a couple of times during the pandemic and even mailed this to Rebecca when it wasn’t safe for face-to-face interactions.
No Knead Focaccia - I just add an extra 50g of water which has helped me get that
Italian Sesame Bread via King Arthur Baking. This is the one I am still workshopping but I have high hopes!
Next week, I will share some of my favorite bread baking tools so home bakers, please let me know what you can’t live without too - would love to continue to have an excuse to continue to buy tools.
Until next week x
Angel
Omg I’m honored!!!! And was literally thinking that I need to make a banana bread so this is perf 💕
Love this! Reminds me of the Mortadella Focaccia sandwich recipe I adapted from L.A.-based Roman cuisine restaurant Mother Wolf for easy home cooking!
check it out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/recreating-evan-funkes-la-mortazza