Pain d'Epi

 Hi everyone! As promised, I’m going to share one of the bread recipes with you from my bread making day with Valerie. Of all the breads we made that day, the Pain d’Epi was my favorite (thank you Patty for letting me know what the name of that bread was) so I’m choosing to share that recipe with you first. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s supposed to be shaped like a wheat stalk. I’m just going to keep this post short today and get started on the recipe. This is not a real recipe, just me recalling what I remember from that day as we did so much. Hope the pictures help. This was only my 4th time baking bread so if I make any mistakes here, you’ll have to forgive me. I’d appreciate it if you could correct any mistakes in your comment as well. Thanks in advance.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp fresh yeast (15-20 grams)
• 350 grams water
• 1 tsp salt (10 grams)

Directions:

Put the flour and yeast in a mixing bowl and rub in the yeast with your finger tips.

Add salt and water. Mix well until everything is combined.

Transfer dough to the counter to knead. (Here’s a video of the kneading technique we used.)

Once you’ve kneaded the dough, mold dough into a ball and place in a bowl covered with a towel in a warm place for one and a half hours.

Once your dough has been given time to proof, place a baking/pizza stone into the oven (if you don’t have a pizza stone then use a cookie sheet turned upside down) and preheat oven to 500 degrees F (or hottest setting).

Gently pour the dough out using the rounded side of your scraper to help you.

Form the dough into a rectangular shape as shown here:

Fold the dough in thirds by pulling up one side and pressing it into the center.

Do the same with the other side.

Pinch the seam closed.

Stretch the dough into a log.

Turn the dough over onto the seam. Allow to proof for another 30 minutes covered with a cloth.

Gently flour the top of the dough.

Now here comes the fun part. With a pair of scissors starting from one end, cut the dough t a 45 degree angle leaving about 1/4 inch from the bottom. Hopefully this video will explain it better.

Slide the loaf onto the baking stone and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

These are the steps I recall taking. If there’s anything you want to add or correct me on, please feel free to do so in the comments section. If you’d like more bread recipes you can visit Valerie’s recipes page or Denise’s lovely bread blog.

Last night I finished off the last of my stash of bread with my Asparagus and Seafood Soup.

 

You can find the recipe over at my dear friend Mary’s blog at Keep Learning, Keep Smiling. The only thing I did different was that I added lobster. We had a party at a friend’s house the night before and had a lot of lobster heads left over (no one wanted them) so I took them home to make this soup. Let’s just say, “slurpity slurp slurp” .

Also before I go, I just wanted to let you know that I had a guest post over at the lovely Lynn Chen‘s blog of The Actor’s Diet last week. Feel free to check it out if you have the time. If not I won’t be offended, I know how busy you all are. If you know me, you’ll know how much I adore Lynn and her work, so this was a huge honor for me. Thank you again for having me on your blog, Lynn!

Until next time, friends and family .

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