Bread Baking With a Crochet Chaser

Durwood and I baked bread today. It's called cocodrillo. I have no idea what the name means or where the bread comes from, I just know I really like it. I am lucky to have a chef DIL who works as a baker right now to provide advice and reassurance on the path to finished loaves. I promised her a photo essay and here it is.


I carefully added the flour so it didn't explode all over the counter.




Next, Durwood weighed the water. (It's a very precise recipe.)







Mix the flour and water with the biga (yeast & flour made ahead) and salt. Knead until all the lumps are gone and the dough is elastic.




After a lot (3 hours) of "resting", punch it down, shape it, roll it in sesame seeds, and allow it to rest again. (Evidently this dough gets very tired.)




We baked each loaf in its turn on our new stone and flung hot water into the oven so it would steam and crisp the crust. Cool, huh? The loaves aren't uniform but DIL said I should say it's rustic, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.



I was patient and let the first loaf get semi-cool (okay, it was still warm, but not hot) before I cut it and sampled it. How'd it taste? Deeelicious. It seems extra holey so maybe there's a bit too much yeast or it needed to be kneaded a bit more, but all in all, I won't be feeding any of it to the birds.




Now for the Crochet Chaser: I finished Sammy's Elephant. I'm not sure I like the trunk but love the ears and tail. I'm sure Sammy will like it just fine. All the toys were a blast to crochet. I highly recommend them as a break from "serious" yarn crafting.