Influences (among other things)

My first attempts at bread baking were terrible. Overworked, under baked, and generally inedible. My wife can attest to the fact. I heard more than once "good try." The thing was I didn't want to suck. I didn't want this thing to fall by the wayside. I try new things and try to be good. And I really wanted to be good at bread.

Richard Bertinet is a French baker in the South of England. Bertinet has several books about baking, but the one that I found that changed what I was doing was Dough. I devoured this book for two reasons. First it taught me a new way of working dough. I had been using the roll and punch that most people use. Throw a ton of flour on the bench, tuck the bread over on itself and beat it like it owes you money. This adds to the flour without adding water (I'll talk about percentages some other time but suffice it to say that it screws up the dough). What's missing from this assault is the incorporation of air. Bertinet's method of working the dough through a series of turns and folds on a clean bench added air and didn't add flour. Second, I learned about the benefits of fresh (cake) yeast. This is active culture yeast compressed into a cake, hence the name. Fresh yeast doesn't require the activation that dried yeast requires, which implies extra water at a temperature above room. It imparts flavor to the bread that you can't get from dried yeast. The drawback is it is hard to find and has a short shelf life. But believe that it’s worth the effort.

A friend introduced me to my second influence. Chad Robertson is a baker in San Francisco. He owns Tartine Bakery and his book Tartine Bread taught me about the value of patience. Most bread bakers possess a modicum of patience. Proving, rising, shaping and resting are not fast events. They are evolutionary. Hours are spent biding time. However, culturing sourdough over weeks and then using bulk fermentation rather than traditional kneading or working glacial in comparison. A good sourdough starter comes to being (really, it’s like a living being) over weeks and months. Daily evaluation with discarding and feeding is seemingly endless. Bulk fermentation accomplishes in hours what working on the bench takes minutes. Turns at intervals followed by shaping and waiting. The wait may seem interminable but the product at the end is marvelous.

These two bakers set a challenge for me that I am still working at. When I achieve that, I'll stop writing about it. Don't hold your breath.