In My Kitchen - Strictly Food for Thought

The Perfect Loaf of Breadwas so cold thatKeri had firedb o t h o v e n sand the starterwas warmingver y slowly.Since bakinggreat breadcomes dow nto manipulatingtimeand temperatureto controlthe outcome,t h e a b i l it yt o respondand adjust to external conditionsreveals the skill of the baker. Most bread bakers will tell you thatit is also what makes the craft fun and challenging. The challengeon that mixing night was definitely temperature.As the room warmed, Keri’s helper, Mike, began mixing flourand water in a large electric mixer, but only for three minutes.Then he let the mixture rest for fifteen minutes. This “rest” iscalled autolyse and is widely used by artisan bakers to give theflour more of a chance to absorb the water evenly, creating adough with a higher moisture content and more open “crumb”in the finished bread (crumb being the bread’s interior texture).The rest also makes the dough less sticky and easier to stretch.Once rested, Mike added the starter and mixed the dough for sixmore minutes.According to master bread baker, Peter Reinhart, fermentationis the single most important stage in the creation of greatbread. Going through my old pastry chef recipes from the late1960’s, I discovered I used much more commercial yeast than isthe norm today. Remember low leaven and long ferment are twokey components in artisan bread baking, especially the leavencreated by the natural fermentation of flour and water whichtransforms (with patience) a lifeless lump of clay into a livingorganism. This type of fermentation uses bacteria in the environmentand is commonly referred to as sourdough starter butis more correctly called “wild yeast starter”. The degree of sournessis strongly influenced by the strain of wild yeast and thebacteria present and can be kept alive for a long time – evencenturies. Besides a sourdough starter, Keri uses two other agentsto leaven or raise her dough: the first being a standard commercialyeast. Yeast mixed with water feeds on the simple sugars ofglucose in the wheat flour and creates carbon dioxide which raisesthe dough. The second, poolish, is used in the Dogwood baguettes.It is a powerful tool that is a mix of equal parts flour, water anda little yeast that has already undergone some fermentation.Convene, Connect & Celebratewww.meetingslakeplacid.comFebruary 2013 | strictlyfoodforthought.com 31