Bread, third attempt
30 July 2026
Attempt one used yeast that had been open in the cupboard since who knows when. It did not rise, and I baked it anyway, out of stubbornness. Attempt two rose and then collapsed in the oven, which I later learned is what happens when you let it prove too long in a warm kitchen.
Attempt three: 500 g flour, 350 g water, 7 g dry yeast, 10 g salt. The salt goes in after the flour is already wet, which sounds fussy and is not. Twenty minutes rest before kneading, then knead until the dough stops fighting back — about eight minutes by hand, less if you are impatient and it is a warm day.
The change that mattered was the oven, not the dough. I preheated a cast-iron pot with the lid on for half an hour at 240 °C, dropped the dough in, baked covered for twenty minutes, then uncovered for another twenty at 220 °C. The crust finally had a crust instead of a shell.
It still is not the bread from the bakery on the corner. But it is bread, it costs about sixty cents a loaf, and the flat smells like a bakery for an afternoon, which is worth something on its own.