Just loafing around...

My newly mixed bread dough and I spent yesterday evening in the lounge, watching the first series of The Office (and I'm sorry to say, like Kath & Kim, I just didn't get it). Me on the sofa, my dough happily installed on top of the gas heater.

Then I tucked it up for the nightand went to bed myself.

See, I was worried if I just left it sitting there overnight the cold would kill it. And since this is my first bread I'm being super-vigilant.

I did wonder momentarily if I should swaddle it in towels, take it upstairs and tuck it into bed with me but decided co-sleeping with your bread dough was just too weird ("I need a queen sized bed because I sleep with my hot water bottle, my cat and my rising bread dough...")

This morning I unwrapped it and popped it back in the heater and myself back on the sofa. It seemed happy to see me. And finally around 2pm it was into the oven for it (and fingers crossed for me)

And this was the result: My very first attempt at bread baking and it looks perfect.

Now I just have to wait for it to cool down so I can sample it and see if it tastes as good as it looks (and smells!). As Jeffrey Steingarten* says in the May 2007 US Vogue article I baked it from:

Bread develops much of its flavour after it is taken from the oven, as the aromas of the crust migrate inward. That's what the late Professor Calvel wrote. Your instinct will be to rip the bread apart as soon as it is no longer capable of administering third-degree burns. As you mature, you will see the advantage of complete cooling.

(* For me, Jeffrey Steingarten is to US Vogue as E. Jean Carroll is to US Elle and Douglas Lloyd Jenkins is to NZ Home & Entertaining - one of the main reasons I subscribe)