Basic White Loaves (TWD)

This is our inaugural post for the new group, Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia.  After four years, we are finally done baking our way through Baking: From My Home to Yours, and now we're diving head first into Baking with Julia. If you would like to join us, just grab a copy of the book Baking with Julia and sign up here.

Our hosts this week were Laurie and Jules.  They chose the basic white loaves.  Without actually looking at the recipe, I was a bit concerned that this would be a time consuming or difficult recipe because, of course, anything to do with Julia and yeast dough must be difficult, right?!

Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this recipe was pretty simple.  There are two 1-hour rest periods, but the actual prep time is about 15-20 minutes.  I started this recipe in the morning, and as Dorie notes, my loaves were done by lunch time.




I actually didn't make the basic white loaves. I decided to kick them up a notch.  To my first loaf I added a generous smear of butter and then some Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle from Penzey's.  To my second loaf I added a generous smear of butter and then cinnamon and sugar.  I didn't really measure anything out, just eye balled it, and in retrospect, probably need to add a lot more cinnamon and sugar next time to get the flavors to really come out.  That said, my loaves turned out perfectly! They were golden on the outside and so soft and tender on the inside.  I will definitely be making this one again!

If you would like the recipe, you can find visit Laurie and Jules' blogs, Slush and Someone's in the Kitchen.  You can also go here, to see who else participated in this week's Tuesdays with Dorie.

* Recipe notes:

- I actually made this twice because the first time I used almost dead yeast.  So the second time around I was out of bread flour.  I made it with regular bleached all purpose flour and the bread still turned out fantastic! I am sure it is better with bread flour but if you don't have bread flour that's ok too.

- Another filling I would love to try the next time I make this: pesto or nutella!