Bread Baking Babes: Coccodrillo (Crocodile) Bread

The last Bread Baking Babes Project dealt with wet dough.  I thought that dough possibly the wettest I would ever encounter. Wrong.  This month's recipe, called Coccodrillo Bread, easily takes the title of Weirdest, Most Liquid Dough, hands down.  The name of the bread is supposedly due to the bread looking like a crocodile.  If I squint really hard and use my imagination, it looks a little like a crocodile, or a slug, or an amoeba.  But, that's not important. What counts is that the wacky recipe produces a marvelous tasting bread.  I thought it was great fun making this recipe.  And, for all you bread bakers who worry about the amount of flour to use, it's a non-issue here.  You add exactly the amount the recipe specifies and not a bit more, even if you think your bread will run off the counter like Silly Putty.

Did I say this recipe is wacky?  Just take a gander at the dough, after it spent about 20 minutes in my Mixmaster.  It was unlike any dough I've ever made.  Impossibly wet, it was extremely elastic, easily cleaning the sides of the bowl, and coming out of the bowl in one big runny clump.  The type of flour that the various Babes used was a topic of much discussion. I used King Arthur bread flour, and Bob's Red Mill Semolina Flour.  But, other Babes used different types of flour, making this a sort of test kitchen recipe.

The first rise.  The marvelous smell!  And the amazing texture of the dough.  I loved the way it felt, runny but not sticky.

I admit it, my loaves were quite homely.  They were so soft, I had a devil of a time putting them on my baking stone. Actually, I wound up transferring them, and the parchment paper they were on, to the stone.  To my relief, parchment paper doesn't burst into flame when it's baked.  And the oven spring of the dough dazzled me.

Here they are, out of the oven. See the one on the right? That was my lunch and dinner.  Nothing else but the bread, and half a stick of butter.   When I found myself eying the other loaf, self defense demanded that I freeze it.  It froze beautifully, and was just as good when I ate the other loaf last week.

If you want to see the Crocodiles' of the other Babes (and you must) please check with our members.  This recipe was not your average bread baking event.   A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Grain Doe (Gorel), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

And if you want the unique experience of making this bread, the recipe can be found at our fabulous Host Lien. She really knows her way around a crocodile. Snap!

Comments

[Lien]

Sher, your Croc twins look amazing!! A very good job... it's a shame we can't sit around a table together with all the babes and taste them all these breads. It was a fight, but it was fun wasn't it! Congratulations on these crocs!

[Peter]

Sher, I would pay money for this bread...awesome air holes!

[whaleshaman]

I never thought I'd say this but...I must have been deranged to believe Dr. Atkins and Gary Taubes and their lo-carb propaganda. [Not really, just a joke, it's lifesaving!] Lo-carb must be the food of the cursed, uhhhh, yup, that'd be me. Mwahhhhh, I want this bread.

Sometimes my mind likes to play little games with itself, unlike the little tricks it's usually playing of late. As in: If there was only one thing you could eat forever -- what would it be?

This morning when I saw the bread and read your description of its...er, "properties" is too clinical a word here, "charms" too lightweight...how about "wonders," it popped onto my "Top 2" list, and I'm thinking one can't really live on yellow peppers, but THIS BREAD does look like the very staff of life itself.

Hmmm, maybe with a drizzle of EVO and a few chucks of pepper to tuck into the, as Lien wrote, "lovely chewy holes"? [see: http://notitievanlien.blogspot.com/2008/03/de-bbbs-op-krokodillenjacht.html]

So who could even care ever if "the market" falls as long as this bread's dough is rising in kitchens everywhere. Now, where'd I put that baking stone?

Thanks, Sher.

PS: Did you use any special butter, like some organic French Alpine cows raised on tarragon type of import? On the other hand, you're not far from Yountville:
http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/985/read.do

But the financial market better go up before I'm spending $750 to belong to a pound-a-month butter club, for ten months.

Pass the butter, please.

[ilva]

Oh how beautiful those loaves are Sher! Not to speak about the HOLES in the bread! You are a true Baking Babe!

[Patricia Scarpin]

I think you did an excellent job, Sher - mind if I grab a loaf?? ;)

[Lynn]

Beautiful bread, Sher. I love the holes. I can see why you ate nothing but bread for a day!

[DaviMack]

It looks beautiful - and like something to try, one day!

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

She those are really breath taking and awesome loaves.
How bad can it be if all you ate was a loaf of bread and butter? It's why it's called the staff of life.
Gorgeous loaves Babe!!

[katie]

Yours looks like real bread!!!!!
I'm so impressed.
Amoeba is a good description....

[Callipygia]

Wow, those loaves are something. The resulting texture looks so artisinal and perfect with a stick of butter.

[Kevin]

Nice looking bread! There is so much air in it. Ah fresh bread with butter...mmm... I am going to have to make some bread soon.

[Kevin]

Great looking bread. It looks like teh dough was fun to work with.

[Gretchen Noelle]

Lovely job! You have some gorgeous bread loaves here!

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

After reading some of the reports from other bakers, and seeing the photos, I'm so excited to see what this bread really should look like! It sounds like a real challenge -- hats off to all of you for sharing the experience with us.

[peabody]

That bread with butter would have been my meal too...YUM!

[Sara]

Looks perfect! It did smell good, didn't it. I wish I could have had the same lunch and dinner as you!

[breadchick]

Sher, you tamed not one but TWO croc just fine. I pretty much consumed one loaf of bread the first night I got one out of the oven too.

I'm with Sara on dinner and lunch. In fact, I'm picking Sara up and we're coming over for dinner. You better get busy making another perfect croc! We'll bring the butter...

[baking soda]

My eyes! (Avert eyes and shield with hand) Sher this croc is the best I've seen (sorry Babes but I'm hungry right, and I have to makes sure Sher hides some from Mary and Sara so I can have a bite!

[Deb]

Sher your "crocodiles rock"!

[Sues is not Martha]

Everyone has been making bread lately! Maybe I need to try...This looks really good though. Seriously perfect :)

Sues

[Görel]

Awesome bread! The holes and the crust looks fabulous! Yes, this was indeed an interesting baking experience.

[kristi]

Yum, yum, YUM. I love freshly baked bread, and I would have eaten BOTH loaves in one sitting, with a FULL stick of butter. I lack your self-restraint.

[kate]

Yum...one's 'Croc' bread is another's 'Ciabatta'

I love bread with airy holes like that. When it's warm, the butter just fills them up so nicely!

[Glenna]

Mmmmmm...lovely bread!

[ejm]

I am so envious! This looks fabulous. I've tried twice in the past to make this Field recipe and after the second spectacular failure vowed never to try it again.

But but but the look of your bread is so tantalizing. I may have to try again and hope that it's really true that the third time is lucky.

-Elizabeth