New to Bread Making but Want to Try?

AND I need your feedback on this Cohort Class!

Thank you so much to those of you who responded to my course survey earlier in the week. That was so helpful and encouraging. A lot of you want to work on your mindset and build confidence in the kitchen. And I am so happy to work on that with you. It is my specialty. So we are all in the right place. And the fact is when we work on mindset and confidence we will naturally build our culinary prowess, save money and achieve your cooking goals whatever they may be.

👉Please fill out the survey if you haven’t yet, it also gets you on the waitlist. I will only be able to take a limited number for this first offering of the course so if you are interested make sure you sign up soon!👈

Also have you all had peaches recently? Wow. My body seems to want to be made of 90% peaches right now. I brought home what I thought was enough peaches for the week and then ate them all in one day. 😳

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Open Kitchen #7: What should I make as a beginning bread baker?

Here is our question of the week for Open Kitchen, the feature where I answer your kitchen/yoga/meditation and anything else in my wheelhouse questions! Please submit your questions for Open Kitchen through this form. The questions will be anonymous so no need to think twice about anything embarrassing. Remember, chances are if you are wondering something or having an experience there are many others who are as well and when you have the courage to ask the question you help all those other people too.

Today’s question is very simple: Do you have a bread recipe for beginners?

Why yes, yes I do. It’s pizza dough!

Why do I recommend pizza dough when you asked for bread? Truly there could be countless ways to answer this question and if you want another simple truly BREAD recipe then I recommend this easy master, no-knead bread recipe by my friend Alexandra.

But I still think pizza is the perfect “gateway bread” if you will, for building confidence in your skills. It’s super forgiving and doesn’t require a long and short rise. You don’t have to worry about oven spring or moisture levels in the oven. You just make it, let it rise and then you get to play with it to make it into a pizza base. Cook it in a super hot oven and… you have pizza! Which is kind of exciting.

So here is my method for making pizza dough the quick way (short rise, more yeast) or the longer way (longer rise, less yeast). Both are great, and you can choose based on your timing and preferences. The longer rise is always going to be a little more flavorful and easier to stretch out so that is the upside of allowing the time.

Pizza Dough 2 Ways
From

There are two ways to make pizza dough: the fast way and the slow way. They’re the same amount of work, just with different waits. The slow method is convenient for a weekday if you make it before bed the night before, pop it in the fridge, then pull it out to rise before dinner.

Servings, 4 individual pizzas

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2-1 tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 cups water

FAST METHOD

1. Measure out the flour, salt and a teaspoon of yeast into a big bowl. Mix the oil into the flour with your hands, crumbling it until the texture is a bit sandy, then add the room-temperature water. Keep mixing with your hands until it comes together.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly floured countertop for 5 to 7 minutes, until it becomes a smooth elastic ball. The dough will be smooth but quite wet.

3. Add a small amount of oil to a bowl. Place your dough ball in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 1½ to 3 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. It’s done rising when it has doubled in size. Then it’ll be ready to shape into your favorite pizza!

SLOW METHOD

1. If you’re organized enough to make the slow dough, I recommend taking the extra time: it’s the best.

2. Use the same process as at left, but add only ½ teaspoon of yeast to the flour mixture. Rather than room temperature, the water should be very cold.

3. After you place the dough ball in a bowl and cover it, put it into the fridge overnight. Letting the yeast work overnight creates a better flavor; it also makes the dough more elastic and easier to work with.

4. The next day, 2 to 3 hours before you want to bake your pizzas, remove the dough from the fridge to return to room temperature.

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Building Confidence in the Kitchen - Free Class Series with me hosted by the Sacramento Public Library

The first installment of this three-week series on July 12th one was amazing. I demonstrated Tuna Tomato Spaghetti from my book, Good and Cheap as an avenue for developing mindfulness skills to calm, soothe and build our ability to cook and understand our true role as providers of nourishment for ourselves and others. We had so much engagement and wonderful audience questions. Everyone was smiling and energized and this is what naturally happens through the creative act of cooking! We simply must be aware enough to take it in.

The next installment on July 19th we will be making Savory Summer Cobbler and working on building our confidence and empowerment.

The Sacramento Public Library is running an amazing program (of which this series is a part) over the summer to provide lunches to kids who might miss out on school lunch during the summer. Additionally they are providing boxes of produce, some cooking lessons, and copies of my book, Good and Cheap to families visiting the library during the summer! These classes supplement and further send the message out into the wider community that cooking is accessible, pleasurable and supportive. Please join us!