bread

I have been breadless for weeks, possibly months, on account of an attitude I copped about bread. Now the urge has come upon me to bake more than to have bread, and that urge can be satisfied only one way … duh duhduh duuuuuuuh! By baking.

Behold: les pains.

Pourquoi les pains? Because they are flavored with Provençal herbs, that's why. I was going for summer savory but I could not find it in the freezer door so I used what I found and that was herbs de Provence. Of course after I used it then I found the summer savory but that is how things go and now I am forced to enjoy one instead of the other.

This was on impulse that happened last night and that impulse was impulsy enough to last through the morning whereupon the project was picked up with equal enthusiasm. Timing was impeccable. I was finished with both loaves, baked one at a time, just as Melody left with the first loaf immediately after both were finished baking, photographed for this page, and tested with a douse of olive oil and with laughing cow cheese.

Can you believe I have two pounds of dry yeast? They sell it that way in doubled one-pound packages. It's ridiculous. What do I look like over here, a commercial concern? The last time I bought it this way I gave one of the pounds to a friend and the second one lasted for years in the freezer. I just now threw away the remnant of that package which is long expired but still works. This new stuff works a lot better.

The process as I recall it * One and one half cup warm water and enough flour for a thin slurry into a large bowl. * 1/4 teaspoon dry active commercial yeast. Watch the little bubbles form. It's fascinating. * A few cups of flour to form a stiff ball. * Oil a new bowl and roll the dough ball in the oil and cover. * Let stand over night. * This forms 1/2 the total dough. This first dough ball, somewhat aged by next morning is called biga by us baker types. * The next morning, for the second half of the dough it's a little different. Now flavors are added. These things, eggs, milk, oil will make our bread more like a brioche except it's enriched with these things and olive oil instead of butter. * two gigantic pterodactyl eggs. Or possibly large chicken eggs into a two cup measuring thing. * enough milk to bring the eggs up to one and one half cups total volume. * See how I'm measuring over here? I'm concerned with keeping track of the liquid because I want to produce two loaves. I don't care so much about the flour. I'll add it until the dough feels right. That turns out to be about double the cups of flour to liquid but I can never tell exactly. It depends on the flour and the day, humidity, and so forth. After this, except for salt, measuring is totally bollox. * Note that now there is three cups liquid total including the eggs. * Beat the eggs into the milk. They are cold, but the mixture needs to be 100℉ / 38℃ for the yeast so carefully raise the temperature by pulses in the microwave. That's carefully in pulses. Carefully, I said! I say this to myself. Use a thermometer, more measuring I suppose, and DO NOT cook the eggs. If you do cook the eggs, then just admit it, you do not have the knack for this sort of thing and you should just give it up. Goodby. * Ok I was kidding back there. Put the warm milk/egg mixture into the mixer machine bowl and add flour sifted by the cup until you have a sufficiently and satisfyingly stiff dough. * The wetter the dough, the more internal holes the bread will have and the larger those holes will be. The stiffer the dough, the tighter the crumb. It's as simple as that. * Add the biga, the first dough ball, to the second dough ball. This time, I added the first dough ball, now risen sponge, directly into the mixing bowl of the machine. This is in contrast to stretching flat like a pizza dough, laying the second over the first, rolling together and carefully blending by hand. I did not do that. I completely mixed the two using the machine. Cruel, I know, but sometimes you just have to take charge. * My dough seemed too stiff so I drizzled olive oil while it mixed to loosen it. I have no idea how much I added. Possibly 1/4 to 1/2 cup. * Added salt to my own taste (I imagined) for the amount of dough I had and the type of salt I was using. Approximately seven cups of extremely dry flour, Denver you know, three cups of liquid, and kosher salt meant about a tablespoon and a half of flakey salt for that large of dough pile. Here again I used a measuring spoon so subconsciously I actually was measuring things but not in accordance to a recipe. I would probably be kicked out of New York for liberal use of salt. * I could tell by feel that this was a lovely pile of dough. The window panel stretch test was excellent. You just know by the way it bounces around under hand that it's alive and cooperative. It's like living clay except better. I love playing with dough, I really do. I don't know why people are afraid of it. It makes me want to form little animals. * Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, cover and allow to rise. I took a long luxurious shower and prepared for Melody and Ann to visit. A little less than an hour elapsed. * Divide the dough into two using the bench scrapper. Wack! Just like that. Knead each piece briefly finishing into a shape of a loaf. Remove the pre-heated cloche from the oven, base and cover. Gently stretch the dough to fit inside the cloche base and place it gently in the pre-heated cloche and add the heated cover and place the whole thing in the oven careful not to burn yourself. Ask me how I know to be careful. * I learned that if I must error then I should try to error on the side of under proofing instead of over proofing. Even so, there is a broad margin for error. This allows me to bake two loaves in succession from the same dough batch. I can tell how the dough will bake inside the hot cloche when I make the slashes, how the dough is going to respond regarding oven lift. When I make the slashes, the dough wants to push right out of the cuts. It shows its interior. That's a good sign. It happens when the dough is ever so slightly under proofed. If proofing is visualized as an bell curve, this would be in front of the peak. That imagined proofing curve is dependent on the yeast, the flour, the heat in the kitchen, extraneous materials in the dough and all the factors that go into baking. The awareness of it arrives through trial and error, mostly error. If over proofed, the dough just sits there like it's already dead when slashed and you can expect little if any oven rise. I hate that. * Place the covered cloche in the oven and bake at 500℉ / 260℃ for 35 minutes. * When finished the loaves leap out of the cloche. Not really, but it seems that way. They are light, having given up their moisture to the bisque cloche as a pizza stone dries bread. The loaves nearly burst out of the cloche while they were in there baking and still moist within it. This is what intense heat does. The cloche keeps the dough moist long enough for the dough to expand before the crust sets and prevents further expansion. Then, because the hot dry clay is absorbent, it sucks out the moisture and crisps the crust. It's delightful.

I must say, after sourdough, baking regular bread is all second nature, but the resulting bread is just not as interesting. It's like 'almost' bread that no amount of enhancement can correct. It's like bread for children. Don't get me wrong, it's good, it's just not as good as so-called sourdough and never will be.