Bread, plain and simple

After the failed attempt at sourdough, I needed to make a simple loaf of bread to prove that I could actually make bread at all.

PLUS I needed to use my new bread rising basket Tom bought me! (Well, use it *successfully*, that is. See: sourdough pictures)

So I just followed Mark Bittman's recipe for a quick french loaf. Except I, of course, had to use half whole wheat flour. But otherwise I kept it the same.





Bread hath risen! Yeah, maybe not very much but whatever.










Now to get it out of the basket and onto the baking stone...steady...steady...





Damn.

OK, so maybe the basket will build up a layer to prevent it from sticking...the middle didn't quite make it.








Here's how it looked out of the oven:




Errr...OK, a little odd-looking. And maybe I didn't really carefully paint the egg wash on the top.













But there you have it. Maybe not as much rise as it was supposed to have. But it tasted good!