slow food....

Bread at a snail's pace. Twenty nine days, two failed starters, lots of trial and error, a tenuous relationship, evening prep, 8 hours rising and two glorious loves of singing bread. Well actually, one was glorious the other was just ok. I learned lots about shaping and creating tension to get a good oven rise and I am totally going to be making two more loaves later in the week. Now that my starter and I have come to understand one another the process is still going to be slow but it's the kind of slow that you can fit into a day of doing other things. It turns out that a super old house in the middle of winter (when the temps outside hover in the teens) is not the best place to keep a starter alive. I found after moving the girls to a few different places in my house that on a small table directly over a heating vent in my office worked perfectly and if i shut the door at night it stayed very toasty and the girls were very lively at their morning feeding (i had two starters going as a kind of experiment and did not want to name them or get too attached so i just refer to them as the girls). These two loaves are the result of a long and rewarding journey Chad Robertson led me on and in case you are interested "Tartine Bread" has an insane number of photos and very detailed instructions (which I read and re-read many times during this process). So there you have it. As this week begins my paintings should be arriving at Nahcotta and my bread is baked so I am taking a big long breath out...what are you up to this Monday morning?

ps: i also came across an article on chad and the recipe for the country loaf in the last issue of martha stewart.