Some Serious Breadage

This morning I read this not-so-shocking New York Times article about sugar supplanting tobacco in American life. Not so shocking because, if you're a hardcore label reader like me, you'd know that sugar saturates the Western diet.

Sugar, in fact, has slapped me back into the bread-baking saddle, which I abandoned in September when school started. But during recent trips to various grocery stores around town, I discovered sugar lurking in the most unexpected of places, namely bread and crackers.

I LOVE bread and crackers. In all vegan honesty, I can say: I'd devour a NYC street pretzel over a cone of Milanese gelato in a heartbeat. Dairy has never been my vice. On the other hand, I regularly dream about bread. Sugar, however, gives me nightmares since my mom died from type-1 diabetes. My Dad, bless his heart, manages type-2.

Bread baking became a passion of mine in 2006, when I struggled to perfect a friend's challah recipe. Veganism has upped the stakes, since I now eschew eggs, milk, and other animal-based unmentionables. My commitment to a no-cane sugar, no-refined carbs diet has made bread-baking quite the challenge in our home. But, since it's impossible to buy vegan sugar-free bread where we live in the culinary badlands of northern Louisiana, I must bake the bread I want to eat.

And if I care about anything, I care about bread. Each week I will experiment with new recipes and post what I consider "successes." Btw: "successes" represent bread that I would serve to the most discerning of eaters, my sister. (This analogy doesn't quite work, since she's gluten-free, but you get the point).

This recipe comes from Mark Bittman's October 8, 2008 New York Times article: "No-Knead Bread: Not Making Itself Yet, but a Lot Quicker." I adapted the "Fast No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread" recipe by doubling the rise time; allowing bread a longer rise time enhances the rich flavor of whole grain wheat and rye flours that cut to the heart of Some Serious Breadage.

What you need:

2 cups stone ground whole wheat flour

1/2 cup whole rye flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tsp instant yeast

1 1/2 tsp sea salt olive oil as needed

a nice big glass bowl

damp kitchen towel

What to do:

Mix the flours, cornmeal, yeast and salt in the glass bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and add 1 1/2 cups of water. Use a wooden spoon to combine the ingredients, until the mixture forms a shaggy dough. That's it! Cover with a warm kitchen towel and place in the warmest room of your house. (For us, that's the living room.) Come back to the bowl in four hours and punch down the dough. Then oil your hands with olive oil and shape the dough into an oiled loaf pan (any size). Cover with a warm towel and go do something else for four more hours.

An hour before dinner, stick the loaf in a 350 degree oven and leave it there for 45 minutes.