I have to confess my love for bread. My salivary glands can work themselves up into a furor over just about any leavened product combined with my other drug of choice, le fromage. And some of my best memories of the last few years were had with Lucy, some wine, a slice of rank cheese, and a traditionally prepared loaf of baguette de tradition francaise.
As a cook, too, I have learned to hold bread in high esteem simply from a technical standpoint. Working on the line doesn't afford you many chances to bake bread: the two departments are at the very least separated, if the restaurant even makes bread at all. And at culinary school, even with a pastry course, I barely spent a week learning about bread-making.
So, it follows, that the most interesting and obsessing food thing for me, right now, is making bread.
I usually don't read Mark Bittman's articles in the NY Times (The Minimalist) because I find them precious, boring, and pretentious...pretty much all things I avoid when it comes to food. Seriously, how many times can you toss dried pasta with (pick one: olive oil, Parmesan, canned sardines) and call it an article? But one time he came through was in introducing me to Jim Lahey's book, My Bread.
Basically, it is now my Holy Grail of bread-making. By combining flour, water, salt, and a tiny amount of yeast and letting them ferment for a much longer time than traditionally allowed (12-18 hours), the bread will knead itself without the use of a standing mixer. This is great, since I sold mine in NYC to finance a little year-long travel habit and am loathe to purchase anything as big and important as a Kitchenaid.
After leaving it on top of the fridge overnight, the dough is darker, bubbling, and making the kitchen smell yeasty (in a good way).
After taking it out of the bowl, I just loosely formed it into a ball and let it rise again for an hour.
And dang, that came out pretty well. The trick is took cook the bread in two different ways: covered and uncovered. The initial covered period lets the bread steam and expand, and the secondary period uncovered firms and browns the crust. If it was left uncovered the entire time it would be a small, dense, burnt lump of gross.
Thanks to Sonic Youth and BJM for the afternoon soundtrack.
