Rise, Rise, Rise, and Shine

New year, new bread recipe

The baker, struck by a vision of rich, egg-bolstered bread, waves her wooden spoon and opens the oven: challah.

Or so I once believed. Now I know that a dependable recipe can’t be conjured, complete. It takes trial and error. Over and over. And over and over and over.

Consider egg bread. It calls for eight ingredients (yeast, sugar, water, salt, milk, butter, eggs, and flour) and six techniques (proof, scald, knead, rest, shape, and bake). Testing every permutation would take an eternity.

Good news, especially if you like a heavy backstock of breadcrumbs, are keen on French toast and bread pudding, or know a pondful of hungry ducks.

I don’t. Still, I tinker. My new favorite formula switches to bread flour, kicks up the salt, and trims down the eggs to yolks. It gives the dough a long knead and many naps. It ditches the old technology of thump-the-loaf for the new technology of use-a-thermometer. The result is a relaxed, happy dough that bakes up into a big, bumpy pull-apart loaf.

The recipe also yields a relaxed, happy baker who can turn to tinkering with other recipes. That, or try a nap.