Always Slash Your Dough Before You Bake Your Bread

Words of wisdom. As I was placing these loaves in the oven, I fleetingly thought, I should slash these, and then I ignored my inner smarter self. This is what happened.

In case you missed this recipe the last time I made it, I am giving it to you again. My daughter is coming home this weekend with her new gorgeous beau and I am cooking up a storm all week for him. They were here two weeks ago and I promised him that if he came back, I would make him my gumbo. His is a sweet southern boy and he loves gumbo. I made this french bread to serve with it.

I measured out 1 1/2 cups of sourdough starter last night and added 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water to it. Then it sat overnight to activate.

This is what it looked like this morning.


I poured it in my mixer bowl and added 2 1/2 teaspoons of instant rise yeast.


Then 2 tablespoons of sugar.


2 teaspoons of yeast.


1 teaspoon of oil.


And 1 cup of water.


About 6 cups of flour is added until you have a smooth dough. The amount of flour varies depending on how wet your started is.


The dough should just be pulling away from the sides of the bowl.


I also made another recipe of my rosemary no knead bread. I hadn't made it in a while and when everyone smelled it they were very excited. This is the dough after rising for 18 hours.


The french bread dough is placed in a lightly greased bowl, covered and left to rise for 1 hour.


While the oven is preheating to 400 degrees, I split the dough into three pieces and shaped them onto baguettes.


Here is the finished rosemary no knead loaf.


And here are the baguettes after baking for 40 minutes. Nice cracks, huh? Oh well, I hope I am smarter next time and remember to slash them. They will still taste good. I'll just call them rustic baguettes!

If you like gumbo, stay tuned for the recipe. I will be working on it all week.