Handmade angel hair pasta, shaved pork gravy, plain white bread



I have a new way to do this want to hear it? Okay, goes like this; flour and yeast and hot water into a processor whipped into a ball in seconds and set out to rise. The dough rises quickly because there is no salt to buffer the yeast. However the loaves lack character that comes with time. Then the ball puffs up, it is stretched to a rectangle and salted and folded in thirds and left to rise again, now really going with maximum activity of hyper reproducing redistributed yeast but also buffered with salt. Delayed saltage, the best of one world: speed. The cost: character that comes with time. Eh, it is the American way.

Know what else is the American way? Storing bread in plastic so the crust goes soft. Soft crust, that's American.

Soft crust is the opposite of what sourdough bread lovers love most about sourdough. Flavor is concentrated in the crust, it is twice as flavorful as the crumb, so gnawing on a piece of crust, masticating it and allowing the flavor to spread around in one's mouth is particularly enjoyable. 

But this bread is far from that.






1 comment:

Bob Ellison said...

That is a beautiful loaf of bread. I've been working on bread lately. Getting better, but nothing that beautiful yet.

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