Inspired by a brother who insists baking bread by weight beats volume, I freestyled this recipe. It’s about as simple as bread gets (and, often, as complex as it needs to be).

Two baguettes, one with rosemary

Ingredients

600 g flour
450 g water
1 T. yeast
1 T. salt

Mix dry ingredients. Add water and blend until combined. Turn out onto counter and knead roughly to aerate. (Here, I used an abusive no-flour kneading technique from a video sent by the same brother. Hard to describe.) Form into ball, dust with flour and put in bowl to rise. When doubled — about 90 minutes — turn out on to lightly floured counter. Divide in two and lightly knead each. Form into baguettes. (During the forming, I added chopped fresh rosemary to one.) Set on baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Preheat oven to 425. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

I haven’t baked bread in a while, mostly because the sourdough starter I used beginning last January quit cooperating. As I consistently baked barely edible bricks, I lost mojo. Not a good thing for a baker.

This batch helped restore some of that confidence. The crust was crunchy and golden and the insides were light, airy and fully done. I used about 3 T. of rosemary in one, and could have used a pinch more to give a more pronounced taste. My biggest criticism: The loaves were a tad salty. Overall, though, these turned out pretty damn good for making it up as I went along, and went a long way toward boosting that mojo.

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