Anyone make their own bread?

[smokinghole]

So this week I got on a kick to make my own bakery style crusty artisan kind of bread. I did some research on sourdough and currently have a sourdough "starter" in the works. That will be a thread to come though. The "starter" takes about five days give or take to come to fruition. So because of that I decided to try something yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/dining/211brex.html

I found a recipe online for simple crusty bread. I did a half recipe last night and came out with two really nice loaves of nice bread. The only thing I did different last night was I sprinkled a little sea salt on the tops of the loaves just as I put the slits in them for escaping steam. Anyhow tonight I am on a different stage. I currently have two loaves of olive oil and fresh rosemary bread baking. Then after they're done I'm going to add some sun dried tomatoes and olive oil to the remaining dough. I will add pictures when they're done. I will say that last night I ended up with two loaves of bread that I would have paid $3 a piece for.

Now the trick to make it crusty like a bakery does is to keep the oven humid. I put a pot lid over the oven vent to keep the air in and I pour water into the bottom of the oven. You can opt to use a heavy baking pan on a low rack. The point is to create as much steam as possible in the oven while the loaves are baking.

[smokinghole]

First two loaves are done. They look good and sound good when you tap them.

[Moro]

I do not do it often, but over at me house we do have a brick oven and everything (usually for pizza, though)

[smokinghole]

Here we go the fruits of my labor. The ones on the right are the sundried tomato and the left are the rosemary.

[Craig Mac]

Here we go the fruits of my labor. The ones on the right are the sundried tomato and the left are the rosemary.

Damn, I got the munchies like a muthf***a.....

[Hardcore]

Here we go the fruits of my labor. The ones on the right are the sundried tomato and the left are the rosemary.

Man now I'm starving!

[Volusianator]

They look delicious.

[Moro]

That looks more than good!!!

[BGC]

They look great man. My father in law always bakin bread and givin to us. Nothing like fresh baked bread.

[Swampfox21]

those look good!!!! I love homemade bread. one of the members of the country club i work at always brings up fresh bread every few months or so....people fight for it hahahaha

[CWS]

My daughter in Law makes bread like that all the time. Wonderfuul stuff. Looks great dude.

[tedski]

Good job!

Of course if this economy keeps up its current pace, we all might need to start baking bread every week.

[rick12string]

They look great Adam. I love bread with a good crust.

[bballbaby]

welld one adam. well done.

one question, the recipes for the pictured loaves...did you use yeast?

I've been toying with the idea of learning to bake bread without yeast. if those are yeastless, i'm in like Flynn.

They look fantastic!!!!

[smokinghole]

The pictured loaves did use yeast. I am working on trying my hand at yeastless bread via the sourdough route. It appears as if my sourdough starter is ready so I can throw it in the fridge and maybe I'll try to make some next week. Do some reading on sourdoughing it's interesting.