Let's Begin at the Beginning

I have been cooking since I was a little kid, maybe six or so. I think my first dish was scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese. Pasta, crabcakes, and buckeyes soon followed. My passion for cooking took off in high school and has continued through college. I have always been the type of cook who likes to undertake challenging projects in the kitchen, from authentic Austrian goulash to French croissants. Virtually no culinary challenge is too big.

My most recent project is bread. I have tried to make it in the past, but a lot of times it just hasn't come out right. I bought Peter Reinhart's book, The Breadbaker's Apprentice, to serve as my formal bread education. I read it in 3 days, and have begun working my way through the recipes. I started this past weekend with French baguettes, which have been among my failings in the past. For those of you who have enjoyed a baguette now and then, or really any rustic bread, you will remember that the bread (the inside part, the crumb) has holes in it. This was my shortcoming with my early attempts at baguettes: they came out dense and moist, not airy and light.

This past weekend finally brought success in the form of 6 near-perfect
pain a l'ancienne baguettes. They used a pretty modern technique, despite the old-fashioned implications of their name. Basically you make the dough and pop it in the fridge overnight. This allows the bread to undergo a unique cold fermentation process, which gives it more flavor. The next day, you take it out, let it rise, shape it and bake it! Sounds deceptively simple, but alas, this is not the case. The first thing I've learned about bread is that it is a lot more scientific than anything. Also, to make it right is a very labor intensive process. But at the end of the day you get to enjoy fresh delicious bread!

So Chapter One of my bread adventure has come to a rewarding end. This weekend, I don't know what bread experiment I will try. Maybe one of the Italian breads like foccaccia or ciabatta, or maybe some loaves with fancy designs. We shall see.

Stay tuned for more goodies!