Cookin' With Farmer Bob: Artisan Bread and Strawberry Jam

Basic Country-Style Bread recipe makes two six-inch round loaves. Photo by Sue Frause.

The weekend before Thanksgiving was a busy one in our kitchen. Not only did Farmer Bob get a bee in his bonnet to make bread, he decided to clean out the freezer to make room for the holidays. 

The bread making resulted in two lovely loaves, made from a recipe for Basic Country Style Bread in Cooking with Artisan Bread (Gwenyth Bassetti and Jean Galton, Sasquatch Books, 2002). It was a three-day process: Friday evening, the starter; Saturday morning, the dough; Sunday morning the shaping and final rise, followed by scoring and baking.

We enjoyed the bread last night with pasta and a yummy Italian Sausage Sauce that included tomatoes, cognac and cream. I'll revisit the bread this morning with toast and strawberry jam.

Strawberry jam on the fireplace mantel in our kitchen. Photo by Sue Frause.

Bob made the jam from strawberries in our freezer, picked from our garden this past summer. Although we like to use the berries for smoothies throughout the year, he wanted to make jam for Christmas gift giving next month. Using his foolproof Strawberry Jam recipe from the SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin box, it resulted in 22 half pint jars of strawberry jam. Perfect for my morning toast!