Corn sheaf bread

the book, 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood, asks the reader/baker to start with this bread before making any other in the book. going through the recipe, i thought that was a strange request because it is a VERY standard, basic bread recipe--water, flour, salt, yeast, olive oil. what makes this bread unique is that it's sort of art--you have to sculpt the bread into what eventually becomes a corn sheaf.

i make soft pretzels for my husband routinely, so this didn't seem like it would be any great challenge, but i obliged, smugly, to the author and made the dough (by hand instead of in my mixer, might i add!).

after letting it do its initial rest, i took it out to begin rolling. 

this is when i realized exactly what he meant by "If you can make a cornsheaf, you can make anything in this book."

this dough was not exactly agreeable with the process. it wanted nothing more than to bounce right back to the shape it started in--giant clump. i understood that he did not mean the dough was tricky or that the process would be confusing. it was simply time consuming and physically tedious. 

my confidence was quickly stripped and i told my husband that i didn't think i would make it through this bread. i should mention that we went kayaking yesterday, and the very muscles you need to roll out the required 20-30 quarter inch logs for this bread are the same muscles that you need to kayak. i was already sore and those muscles needed a break!!

i have a tendency to get excited about things at their inception and then lose interest within a few days. weeks if the object is lucky! i was so excited about this bread, but once i realized how (literally) painstaking this process was going to be, i nearly gave up.

but my husband encouraged me and i told myself this would be only an hour or two of my life and the reward would be worth it. so i continued.

it was in fact worth it.

maybe not the most AMAZING corn sheaf shaped bread ever, but for a first try, i would say not bad!! E is certainly impressed, and i must admit, i am too. this will be a fun bread to eat, and it has me looking forward to the other fun flavors and shapes i'll be introducing to my bread arsenal over the coming months!

i won't be putting the recipe up for this, but i hope it inspires you to try some new shapes with your breads! it's got me thinking!