Bread baking failure

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

You might remember that Flagler County Commissioner George Hanns auctioned off a large pan of his homemade, family recipe lasagna for more than $100 last year during the Carver Center auction. While the commissioner is not ready to part with that secret recipe yet, he did share with me an old family recipe for tomato basil bread.

The recipe, Hanns said, is like any other recipe that has been passed down. Everyone adds and subtracts ingredients based on their pallet. The recipe calls for 1/2 tablespoon of basil. I don’t have an ounce of Italian in my heritage, but I am a big sucker for herbs like basil, so I bumped that up with fresh basil from the farmer’s market.

Making this bread was an experiment. I have always only made sweet breads and have never used yeast in baking before. I’m not sure the dough was doughy enough when I put it in the oven, but I went for it anyway.

When I pulled the bread out of the oven, it smelled divine, despite a slight burn on half of the top due to my flaky oven.

When I cut through it, however, it was not cooked all the way through. I plopped the bread back into the oven for another 10 minutes, but all I got was more burn.

I was able to find a section near the corner that was cooked through. That bite was delicious.

I challenge all the bread bakers out there who have proper ovens to bake this bread properly. Make Geo proud.

Geo’s Tomato Basil Bread
What you need:
1 tablespoon dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon sweet basil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper or 1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper (for a nice kick)
8 ounces crushed tomatoes or 12 ounces for tomato lovers

What to do:
Place tomatoes in boiling water for five minutes before blending into dough, if using canned tomatoes, make sure to drain the can.
Mix all ingredients at once. Add flour when kneading if necessary five to seven minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.