No Knead French Bread, Birdeye

Friday, March 13, 2014

Whew, it's been a crazy, busy month.  We've been out of school 6 days for snow, Chloe tested positive for the flu last week, track, piano and yoga continue for her plus 9 weeks tests among lots of other fun stuff.

Last Saturday I was on a mission to make homemade bread for my church's welcome freezer (Wynne Presbyterian Church) and found this recipe in my old, beat up Southern Living cookbook.  It's one of two recipes I tried last weekend and Chloe picked it because it's less dense than the other one.  It has several steps but they are worth taking.  This recipe makes 3 loaves and all are excellent to freeze.  Delicious, I tell you....

No Knead French Bread, Southern Living Cookbook

1/2 c. warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
2-1/2 t. sugar
2 pkg active yeast
1 cup boiling water
2 T. sugar
2 T. butter
1 cup cold water
6-7  C. all purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
2T. milk
poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Combine warm water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl, let stand 5 minutes.  Combine boiling water, sugar and butter in a large bowl, stir until butter melts.  Add cold water until lukewarm 105 to 115 degrees.  Stir yeast mixture into butter mixture and add 2-1/2 C. flour.  Beat at the speed of a mixer at medium until blended.  Gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.  Let mixture stand in mixing bowl 10 minutes, gently stirring for a few seconds first, then cover with a towel.  Repeat gently stirring the dough every 10 minutes for 40 minutes.  Turn dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 portions.  Roll each portion into a 13 X 8 rectangle and roll up in a jelly roll fashion (this means long wise) pinching the ends under.  Place each loaf on a lightly greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, about 40 minutes or until doubled in bulk.  Make diagonal slits about 1/4 inch deep about every 2 inches.  Combine egg and milk and brush gently over loaves after rising.  Sprinkle loaves with seeds and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped.

DELISH I tell you, look at this photo...you can see that I didn't get the egg mixture fully over the loaves but I will do it better next time!  I cut the baking back by 5 minutes to allow after thawing that it would be cooked another 5 minutes and it's worked great!

This bread is so stinking easy to make!

Chloe is President of the Junior Music Club, this was the February meeting

We had Kara's crew over during one of the snow days, here we are playing solitaire with five people

Jackie and I completed our 8th Little Rock Half Marathon March 1

Chloe cracks us up...we had 5 inches of snow....

Chloe put harnesses on both Buddy and Gummy to have them pull the sled, fun times :)

Cute photo, luckily we learned from last year's wrist breaking down the APAC hill to keep it slow on the sledding time

The roosters are becoming aggressive toward Jackie...just Tuesday when he was feeding them, one of them jumped on
his back and spewed poo and dirt all over him.  Chloe and I were cracking up, he had to change clothes before going to work

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And there's been a bike ride in there too...left to right, Stan, Chuck, Lisa, Beth, Martin, Jimmy, Kara, me, Jackie, Cecelia and Kyle

And there was the Lion King at the Orpheum in Memphis

Chloe's BFF Bailey Bigger from Marion came over to the Lion King with us

Dang that Santa Claus, he brought a box of temptations (cat treats) and
every morning the cats whine until we give them some treats.  It's the most
annoying thing in the world...Here's Essie Mae trying to open the container up...