Adventures in Bread Making

I do a lot of cooking and I have for a long time wanted to make homemade bread. My last apartment's stove was a piece of crap that the management would not do anything about. The oven was so bad that when I would make a cake, half would be over cooked and part would be way undercooked. If I baked anything I would have to set my timer for half of what the recipe would say.

anyway, since I am now in a new apartment and the stove is much better I figured it was about time to test my cooking skills by trying to make bread. My first try is with a basic bread recipe from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver cookbook. The recipe is as follows (from page 184):

3/4 oz of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups of tepid water
2 lbs of flour (recipe called for 1 lbs of regular flower and 1 lbs of durum semolina flour)
2 tablespoons of salt

• dissolve yeast in 1 cup of water and 2 table spoons of honey
• make a pile of flower and salt on a large table or bowl and add yeast mixture once it is dissolved.
  
• mix with hands till all the mixture is absorbed add the next cup (more if needed) of water till the dough has the correct consistency.
• knead the bread for about 5 minutes to develope the structure of eh dough and the gluten
• allow to rise for approximately 1 hour till the size of the dough doubles
• next punch it down to release the air and then shape the bread the way you want it and then score the top and let it rise again until its double the size.
  
• I then baked it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees (the recipe says till it sound hollow when you tap bottom)
  

this is what it looked like:



Kind of ugly looking but man did it taste good. MMMMMMM!!!!!

My next adventure will most likely be using beer instead of water. Then I may add some flavors such as Rosemary or maybe a homemade pizza crust.