These photos accompany Savory Bread and Baking Cookbook. Don’t have this book yet and want the full recipe? Get this book on Amazon.
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Step-by-step photos
Before I had a stand mixer, I kneaded bread in a bread machine on the standard dough cycle — turning it off during fermentation so it wouldn’t add heat. The dough develops more mature flavor that way than when it rises too fast. All the kneading methods — by hand, stand mixer, bread machine — are covered in the book.
This is one of my all-time favorite loaves — I’ve been baking it forever. Beginner-friendly dough, not too wet to work with. Simple round shape.
Back then I didn’t have proofing baskets or any of the gear, so I proofed this loaf in a colander lined with a clean kitchen towel, generously dusted with flour. I was still nervous about scoring too, so I cut shallow — the loaf didn’t open up the way it could have. Baked on a cold sheet, no steam!..
Why am I sharing this with you? Simple: to show that bread forgives a lot, you can work with whatever you have on hand, and if it all seems too complicated right now — it’s genuinely such a rewarding thing to learn. You won’t know all the nuances at first, and you’ll still enjoy the process and the result from day one. That’s the feeling I want to pass along here — one you can’t get from a set of “perfect” instructions alone. Why bread wants heat, a baking stone, how to score properly — that’s exactly what I gathered into the book. All in one place.
