Tuesdays with Dorie: White loaves

Today, I’m excited to announce my participation in Tuesdays with Dorie. I know, I know, more Dorie. But I couldn’t resist.  I missed out on baking my way through Baking, from my Home to Yours with the other TWD participants from 2008 – 2011 (whoah, that’s a lot of baking!) so when this new group was announced baking their way through Baking with Julia.  According to reviews, this book “offers the dedicated home cook, whether a novice or seasoned veteran, a unique distillation of the baker’s art.”  Well that sounds like my kinda thing. Learning baking in the comfort of my own home where noone has to watch my mistakes except me. And perhaps Cleo 😉  I have really loved the camaraderie of the French Fridays with Dorie group thus far and figured I could use a few (hundred) cheerleaders as I navigate my way through the world of baking.

When the first recipes were announced (this is a 2 recipe per month group only which made it much more feasible than had it been 4 times a month – we’d only ever be eating Dorie food!), I was at the same time nervous and happy that this group was going to force encourage me to bake bread. Again. And not just any bread. Any easy bread. White loaves (pp 81-82 and hosted this month by Laurie and Jules).  OMG. Really? Like, you know, sandwich bread? That has to look like bread. Not like my clumsily elegant damper. Or the simple peasant boule I was fairly successful with. No, this one had to look and taste right.

I made this a couple of weekends ago when Neil was away. Because there’s nothing worse than someone being at home when you bake bread and it comes out as hard as a rock.  After the damper and boule experiences though I am *just* starting to figure out what bread dough should look like at its various stages. And I nervously trusted my instincts. And was justly rewarded:

Yeah, I know. I was seriously leaping around the kitchen when this came out. It looked good, it sounded right and it smelled amazing. But I had to wait until it cooled down to see the inside. Would “the crumb” be right?

OMG OMG OMG! I emailed pictures of this to Neil at his conference I was so excited!  It looked right on the outside AND the inside 🙂

I gobbled one slice with butter when it was still warm. And I made another Dorie recipe (for this week’s French Fridays recipe) with a second.  The rest, I sliced and placed in Ziploc bags in the freezer and was delighted to learn it freezes well. And is amazing toast.  I’ll be making this again. What a sweet start to Tuesdays with Dorie. I can’t wait to see where this group will take me 🙂

Join us cooking through Dorie’s “Baking with Julia” in 2012 – read the rules and join Tuesdays with Dorie here.

Tuesdays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs except if we happen to be the host for the week, rather, we prefer if you purchase Baking with Julia for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.  Go on, you know you want to 🙂 It’s a beautiful book.

49 thoughts on “Tuesdays with Dorie: White loaves”

  1. That loaf looks perfect, congratulations! I love Baking with Julia as a cookbook, I hope you have an amazing time baking through it (I can’t really see how you wouldn’t…) 🙂

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  2. Yay!! That is so exciting. Good looking loaf and crumb 😀 I think baking bread is the most exciting form of baking.. it doesn’t matter how many times I do it I am still super pleased when it turns out nicely. Congrats!

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  3. I can imagine how excited you were when this rose perfectly before going into the oven and then seeing how beautifully it baked. You are *rapidly rising* to great heights as a bread baker Mardi. Isn’t homemade bread beautiful and delicious and doesn’t the house smell wonderful while it is baking? I love it toasted.

    You were right to freeze the uneaten portions. As there are no preservatives in home-made bread it does not have a long shelf life if not kept in the fridge or freezer.

    Continued success with your breads and keep posting about them. Your readers *knead* to see 🙂

    (sorry about that, couldn’t resist)

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  4. Mardi – Congrats on a great looking loaf of bread! What is it about Dorie that makes everything go so smoothly. I completely agree with you on the support of cheerleaders from FFWD and BWJ – it makes the success so much sweeter, and the mishaps easier to handle.

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  5. Great first recipe and results! Looking forward to the next couple of years ahead baking with you and this group – and am also, like you, completely relieved that we’re now only baking twice a month! When Baking FMHTY was weekly there was just way too much dessert around for a 2 person household!

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    • Yes I don’t think I could have done a BAKING challenge once a week. That’s what I like about FFWD – it’s a mix of baking and cooking so it’s do-able. The fact that TWD is not only 2x a month with obligation to only post once makes me happy. I can work at my own pace!

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  6. Wow – don’t know how you do it, Mardi. Tuesdays, too? Great news: Mr Neil gets his perfectly homemade bread and I hope you get a good glass of something wonderful for Valentine’s 🙂

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  7. This should be a fun experience, Tricia and I are going to split this also. Each doing 1x
    per month. There are only two in my house, and neither Hubby or I really need to
    eat too many goodies. Your bread turned out beautifully, and I agree, it makes
    wonderful toast. You can smell the yeast in it when it heats up.

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  8. I think I saw this loaf on your IG account the other day 🙂 looks gorgeous! I can’t believe I don’t have a copy of Baking with Julia, ordering now. Twice a month sounds doable, maybe I’ll join you soon.

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  9. I am so excited to be a part of Tuesdays with Dorie as well, I’m sure it will be a wonderful learning experience! Your bread looks just perfect, the photos really show the feather soft crumb texture, yummy! I had to smile when you said you messaged photos to your husband, totally sounds like something I would do 🙂

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  10. yay!! good job!! 🙂 I started baking through Peter Reinhart’s “Artisan Breads Everyday” and thank goodness he is my teacher because he has taught me all that I need to know about bread baking and increased my confidence so that bread no longer scares me 🙂 Maybe his book can help you too? It will explain all the ins and outs of how the recipes are written and to know whether the ratios are right or not to ensure you have a great, perfect loaf of bread every time and does a great job of explaining what each step should look and feel like so you dont have to guess at it.
    Youre not the only one that decided to use the second loaf for this weeks FFWD! 🙂 I chose to make the brioche because I needed to catchup on that recipe anyways and the bread didn’t make it Friday… 🙂 Great job!

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    • Alice, I actually have that book and it’s been taunting me for a while. Now I have got a little bread mojo back, I might delve into it again! And I only made one loaf of this bread – I never (or rarely) make the full amount of anything!

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  11. Beautiful bread! I froze a loaf too, otherwise I would have eaten both nearly all by myself. Nice to be baking along with you!

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