Bread

This blog has no theme. I write about whatever I want. This entry is about bread.

Sourdough loaf.

Today I baked a sourdough bread. It was a lot of effort. First there's the idea of a starter. It's basically a jar of flour/water mixture that you feed constantly with more flour and water to keep the yeast and bacteria alive and flourishing. You get that going for a few days, then you make your dough with it. That's step 1 of 13.

I followed the recipe from this NY Times link. Not counting the starter business, the whole ordeal was a 2 day effort, with a lot of mixing, waiting, folding, waiting, shaping, waiting. And more waiting. But the whole process is a bit therapeutic, and pleasantly enjoyable. A Carmex once told me he felt the same way about gardening.

The taste of this sourdough is amazing. Really soft and chewy interior, and really crisp, almost crackling crust. Actually when you take the dough out of the oven, you can hear the crust crackling. That's how you know it's a good crust. The taste rating is very close, just slightly behind, the taste rating of a fresh baguette.

Almond pistachio cherry biscotti.

Few weeks ago, I baked biscottis. They were really easy, compared to baguettes and sourdough. And tasty. They were gone real quick. I should bake more of these.

Baguettes.

I think I've gotten my baguettes down pat now. The ones above turned out really nice. They will taste different from the ones in Paris, but I kinda prefer mine. The crust is a bit crisper and the crumb a bit softer.

With baguettes and sourdough under my belt, I feel like I can take on pretty much anything. Next on my list (not in any order)

- pretzels - oh those glorious pretzels I remember from Germany. Can I come close?

- bagels - these might be too much work for their value, but something I'm considering

- naans - who doesn't like these? I mean, c'mon.

- that super-crusty-super-hard-but-so-tasty-bread from Norway. I don't even know what that bread was called, or how I'm even going to research it. But I still dream of it.