...As Pepe LePeu would say...Oh, Pickle, I fear you may have done it this time. I have dabbled in bread baking but, to be honest, I have never understood the urge to take it ultra-seriously at home. I've always lived in city neighbourhoods where a great loaf of one kind or another is just blocks away. I've had those Ma Ingalls/nouveau hippie urges to bake my own bread, sure. I'm often seen kneading up a batch of fresh rolls for Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever. Sometimes I get fancy and put sweet potatoes or something in them. One time I bought a rather expensive baking stone, although Mr. Salty mistook it for a brick and threw it out after spilling pizza sauce on it in the oven, thereby ending that 'run' at serious home baking.
But this is the first time I've really seriously made a kind of artisanal quality bread at home.
I went hard-core, inspired by your challenge, and chose the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I really was up early Wednesday morning to make a Pate Fermentee, which I learned is like a mini-version of the dough to come (flour - half bread and half all purpose, yeast - surprisingly instant again - water and salt). You knead this and then leave it in the refrigerator overnight, like an insurance policy on deliciousness. Although, part of you does feel ripped off that you did a whole bunch of work and nothing is coming out of it. YET.
You can't call this recipe 'easy' in fact, because there are a lot of steps that take a looooooong time - but the steps in and of themselves aren't complicated. On Thursday I got the Pate Fermentee out to de-chill, which took it an hour, then cut it up to add to a new batch of dough (which used the exact same simple ingredients.) Mixing - I went with the stand mixer because I am unlike Ma Ingalls in that I hate hand mixing stiff bread doughs. Kneading - this I did by hand because it's tremendously satisfying. Rising - 2 hours during which I did a bunch of work. Shaping - I even made a homemade couche for the bread to rise in from a piece of linen, spritzed with oil and sprinkled with flour. Rising part II - about an hour. Slashing - Xacto blade worked like a charm. Baking. Steaming while baking - first with a steam pan in the oven and then with three visits at short intervals to spritz the oven walls with more water, which had my babysitter certain that I was BONKERS. And THEN you have to wait a torturous 40 minutes before you get to eat them. I'm exhausted just typing that.
It was worth the wait. Leaving Paris out of the equation (because one must, always, or it is unfair to the rest of the bread-baking world,) AND leaving modesty out of the equation, I don't think I've had baguette this delicious. No, really. There are some good ones around, but there is something about the freshness. The work with the steam was a good investment, I think, making for that chewy crust that marks this species of bread.
I sent a loaf home with the babysitter, as payment for having to work for a crazy lady.
Thank you SO MUCH for making me do this. It won't be the last time - I figure that now that I've done it, it will get easier. Right? Right?!? This is the part where I think you may have done it. If I get serious about this...? There goes the rest of my leisure time. And my hard work at weight-loss.
Get ready for a new challenge before Tuesday. And don't put the yeast away!!!
Bisous,
Gumdrop
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