Tuscan Loaves but No Kidding

          Two of our best friends said they enjoyed my funny article about Tuscan bread, but now they want the recipe for real. Anyway Joyce and Linda (and for anyone else out there) I’ll be serious just this once. So this one’s for you.        Ingredients; 1 cup very warm water, 1 oz. active dry yeast, 2 2/3 cups bread flour, and that’s it. In Tuscany these loaves are salt-less and no sugar is used. (back when starting out I for some reason added ½ tsp of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar. But everybody liked these first loaves so much that I’ve kept adding them ever since. Just don’t tell anyone in Tuscany about this, OK?)

Methods; put the yeast in a small bowl of warm water and leave ‘til frothy. Heap the flour on a work surface, make a well, pour in the yeast water, and work in with a fork. Knead dough until smooth (about 5 min.) and shape into a ball. Place in a bowl dusted w/ flour (I skip the dusting and spray with PEM), cover, and let rise for 2 hours.

          Turn the dough onto a floured work surface, PUNCH it down, and divide in half. Shape the halves into ovals, place on a baking sheet (maybe I did something wrong when first using cookie sheets because my earliest loaves came out flat. So, I switched to either my small Pyrex bowls or bread pans) dusted w/flour (no, I do my PEM thing again), and let rise for 30 min. Place sheet on middle rack of the oven pre-heated to 400 F., bake ‘til loaves are golden brown (about 30 min.), and let cool on a wire rack before slicing (which never happens at our place because Ruthie saws off end pieces, her favorite part, 3 seconds after they’re out of the oven).

          And speaking of bread recipes, I might as well give you this one too, which my mom started using 70 years ago.

Ingredients; 1 oz. dry yeast, 2 ¼ cups bread flour, 1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beater), 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. baking powder, 1 tablespoon minced (or dry chopped) onion, and 1 tablespoon dill seed.

Method; put yeast into ¼ cup very warm water and let froth (sometimes mine does and sometimes not but I use it anyway). Setting aside the flour, heat cottage cheese ‘til warm, add to the other ingredients (incl. the yeast water) in a large GLASS mixing bowl (plastic ones don’t work as well-honestly), and mix with a beater. Add flour slowly while stirring with a WOODEN spoon (plastic ones are also strictly for the birds) until well mixed. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (1 hr.). Scrape out onto floured surface, knead while dusting with more flour ‘til not so sticky, shape in a bread pan sprayed with PEM, cover and let rise 30 min. Place on middle rack of oven pre-heated to 350 F. and bake for 40 min. (And keep people from tromping around in the kitchen, otherwise the loaf might collapse!). When it’s out, baste with butter and shake on a little salt.

          So Joyce and Linda and all the rest of you, if this 70 year-old recipe doesn’t make the best-tasting onion-dill bread you’ve ever had, then I don’t know what. Plus, I’d make it a lot more often, too (if Ruthie would quit stealing all  my yeast).