Saturday, March 12, 2011

The perfect loaf

I know you've been wondering where I've been for the past couple of months, so let me tell you: I've been busy. Very busy. Busy trying to bake the best bread this side of the Atlantic has ever seen. Because let's be honest, while Southern California may be famous for all kinds of yummy food (i.e. Mexican), great bread is certainly not one of them.
So over the past couple of months I decided to take matters into my own hands and immersed myself in the process of Artisan Bread Baking, which meant studying, researching, taking classes and most importantly: LOTS and LOTS of practice. Luckily I have a husband who caught onto that whole bread baking thing pretty quickly and now might just be even more obsessed with baking that perfect loaf than me.
We're of course still at the very beginning of what will most likely be a long, long journey, but we've already had some pretty amazing successes with all different kinds of bread.
While taking that perfect loaf out of the oven sure is very exciting, the biggest step so far has definitely been, that we are developing a deep enough understanding of the processes of bread making, that we are more and more able to eliminate the surprise factor and create fabulous loafs on a consistent basis.




Tartine Wheat Sourdough. Nothing but flour, salt and water. The hardest one to conquer so far, but so worth it.



Big airpockets = happy baker



Rye Sourdough. Carrying on a century old family tradition.



Schwaebische Seelen (Hearty Seed Bread)



Gruyere Wheat Bread



REAL pretzels, made with REAL lye. No cinnamon sugar here.



Spelt Croissants. Got to have some fancy pastry, too.


And of course, you can also use that bread to make some pretty tasty dishes...


...like these Wheat Sourdough Paninis with red and green pesto, provolone cheese, arugula and grilled tomatoes. Yum.



Like what you see and want to volunteer as a test eater? Let me know.