[XOTM] Getting into Baking

"Alright.. that should be everything."

Rose Quartz wasn't particularly the best at baking yet, he'd been trying to get into it for quite some time. Today, he'd decided to step out of his comfort zone and attempt to bake something relatively simple: a loaf of bread. Rose had decided to specifically make Homemade Artisan Bread. It looked delicious, and oh so tempting.

The recipe had called for Bread Flour, Instant Yeast, Salt, and Water. He'd also decided to add some other herbs to add some extra taste to it. He'd picked out garlic, rosemary, and some chopped onion. He'd been tempted to try to make some bread with nuts.. but decided against it, for now.

He dusted the pan with cornmeal, something the recipe site had suggested. The smells of all the ingredients were already flooding his senses, and he had to resist the urge to pop on over to the fridge and grab a mid-cooking snack.

After that, he put on some gloves to avoid getting fur in the dough, before mixing the dough ingredients together. He used a spatula at first, then finished the rest with his hands.

Unfortunately, he'd now have to wait a couple hours to let it rise. He covered the dough carefully, took off his gloves, and decided to go outside for a bit.

Three hours later, the alarm he'd set went off, and he came back inside, put back on his gloves, and went right back to work.

The dough had risen perfectly, something he was particularly relieved for. 

The recipe stated that the longer it sat, the better the taste. However, he was particularly looking forward to trying this bread today, so that would just have to be a future project.

He got out a baking sheet and smoothed it out on the counter, he then shaped the dough into two longer loaves. He would then carefully grab a kitchen knife and shape some shallow lines in the top of the dough, in order for the heat not to get trapped inside it. The website called this 'scoring'.

"So far so good.." he mumbled, nose twitching at the smells, he was still rather hungry. Maybe he should've grabbed a snack during that few hour wait..

No matter. He'd then preheat the oven, switching out his cooking gloves for oven mits. 

He was confused by this part of the recipe, but did it nonetheless. He boiled some water on top of the stove, before pouring it into a cast iron baking dish, and put it on the bottom oven rack. The description stated the steam would help the crust, so hopefully this meant it would taste better.

He quickly placed the dough in a separate pan on a higher rack, and closed the oven door.

During the next twenty five minutes, he'd tidy up the kitchen where he'd done his work. Once the timer beeped, he'd open the oven and check on his work.

Seeing as they looked done, he pulled them out while wearing the oven mits and placed them on the counter. The cast iron pan that the water has been in was basically empty, so he poured out the rest and left the pan in the sink to be cleaned afterwards.

He'd let the bread cool for a few minutes, before taking off the oven mits and cutting a slice.

"Looks good, smells good.. I had to have done that right, right?" He said to himself, nose twitching and eyebrow raised.

He took a bite out of it, and it felt like his taste buds exploded. It probably would've been better had he let the dough sit longer, but he didn't care, this was incredible!

The taste flooded his senses just like the smells had earlier. However, part of him wished he had some homemade honey butter to try it with, like the recipe suggested he try.

It didn't look exactly like the photos on the site, but it was perfect to him. He'd managed to do the entire process without dropping anything, which was an even bigger bonus.

He snapped a few pictures of the bread, and put his phone away. He pulled a chair over, sat down at the counter, and continued eating his bread.

He'd have to do this again, and again, and again. He wanted to try hundreds of recipes, bake thousands of things. There was more to baking than bread, after all.