COVID-19 Virus Shutdown, Day 63

After reading my friend's thread about virtually doing 80 countries in 80 days with her kids during the summer, I did some quick research on foods around the world. Can you guess what is the country with the best food is? Italy of course! I've long suspected. 

Now that I got through the breads I wanted to try, as of today, I'm on to sweet breads this weekend. So the baking is taken care of. But finding the list of foods in each country that is deemed "the best" was intriguing. Some of the foods I'd never heard of. Some of the countries I've never heard of!

I may have to try foods from around the world myself!

Since we planned on spaghetti today, i was looking for an Italian bread. Ciabatta came up but it takes 20 hours to rise! 20 hours! So that wasnt going to work for dinner. 

So I looked up 'quick easy italian bread' and that's where I found the 1 hour bread. 

Yeah! I had to put that to the test. 

The recipe

The recipe seemed reasonable. I put it at the end of this blog if you want it. 

Throw everything in the mixer! Mix for 5 mins. 

Spray the pan with oil and spread on cornmeal

Lay out the dough in a long form and cut with a sharp knife on diagonal
Let it rise like this for 20 mins

Once the dough was in place and slashed, I moved on to getting the eggplant ready to roast. 

Cut up the eggplant, put in a bowl with olive oil, salt, italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese. 
Lay out on a sheet tray with parchment. Roast 40 mins at 400F

I put the bread in and let it cook for the last 20 mins. That plus gathering ingredients shouldve been an hour. 

Should be at 190 when done

So, yeah, it wasn't ready in 20 mins like the recipe said. 

But how much longer would it take? Turns out less than 10 mins later the bread was ready. 

Was 1 hour bread done in one hour? No. 

Did we make it in time for dinner anyway? Yes. 

Would I make this again? Yes!

Spaghetti Dinner was awesome

Recipe as promised: 

1 hour Italian bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tblsp honey

1 Tblsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Instructions

Combine water, honey and yeast in mixing bowl

Let sit about 5 minutes, or until foamy

Add flour and salt

Using dough hook (if you have one) mix in flour until dough is not sticky to the touch. (Start with 3 1/2 cups and add small amounts until proper consistency is reached). This usually takes about 5 minutes of mixing.

Scoop dough out of bowl and onto baking sheet or baking stone, forming into a longish loaf

Cover loaf with a clean towel and let sit for about 20 minutes while you preheat oven to 400 degrees

Using sharp knife, cut slits in top of loaf

Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown (should read 190 F in the center)

Optional: brush top of loaf with butter before slicing

Enjoy and let me know if you make this. 

Meantime, stay safe, sane, and healthy!

Vicky