Basic White Loaves

So here we go!  My Baking with Julia book by Dorie Greenspan is pristine--no chocolate splotches, nor flour in the page creases, nor cover slick with a patina of butter.  I'm ready to begin baking through the book with over 300 other bakers who have joined Tuesdays with Dorie.   (And, since I have just over a dozen recipes to finish up in Dorie's fabulous Baking from My Home to Yours, I'll sneak in a few reports as I finish up those recipes.)

This week, we started out with Basic White Loaves, chosen by our founding mother, Laurie, and her able co-mother, Jules.

First, you must know that my husband and two of my sons have embarked on experiments baking artisan breads.  On the weekends, we have heated pizza stones, spritz bottles to add steam, razor blades for cutting decorative tops, and most noticeably, bowls of yeasty starter dough rising around the kitchen.  All well and good, but I what I loved about this recipe was its simplicity.

Short and sweet:
I used the dough hook on my mixer.  No hand kneading necessary!

I let the dough rise, then formed it and let it rise again.

The two loaves were perfect in appearance and wonderful, basic white bread!

This week I also baked Dorie's Chocolate Cream Tart, a delicious tart with a chocolate sweet tart crust, a lovely creamy chocolate filling,  whipped cream on top, a a generous scattering of chocolate shavings.  Dorie says to eat this within two hours of serving which was not a problem for my Monday night guests.  In fact, one was seen scraping the last bit of chocolate off the serving plate with her finger!