The Search for Sustenance Begins

I’m going to make an earnest attempt at baking really good bread.

It’s not that I haven’t tried before.  But the loaves I’ve produced in the past have had more in common with pieces of sporting equipment than anything you’d want to ingest.  Truly – I can’t stress this enough – I’m an absolutely hideous baker.  Years ago, acknowledging this short coming led me to the conclusion that baking bread was best left to the experts. 

But an epiphany at the neighborhood supermarket six months ago has forced me to reconsider this position.  There in the bakery, surrounded by the best loaves the store had to offer, I felt bereft.  Where were the whole grains?  Where were the airy, soft interiors nestled inside of a chewy/crispy curst?  Where was the character?  And where – WHERE - was the lovely warm aroma? 

I looked around the store in alarm - had anyone else noticed what was missing?  No one seemed to notice anything amiss.  Perhaps I was overreacting.

But soon thereafter, I happened to have the pleasure of hearing Kim Boyce talk about her new whole grain baking book, Good to the Grain at a local culinary school. 

Ha!  I wasn’t alone! 

There were others that felt that something intrinsic is lost in the industrialization of bread.  (It’s not for lack of trying, but the truth is that bread in its most authentic form is something that simply doesn’t travel well through space or time.  It’s best produced locally and eaten quickly.) 

But back to that evening at the culinary school…the most important lesson I took away from that night was this:  after trying my hand with a few of the recipes, it felt remotely possible that I might one day produce a loaf of bread that I’d actually serve.  Emboldened by Kim’s confident assurances and inspired by her creativity with whole grains, I returned home that night determined to try again.

And thus, I began – and so I’ll continue…

I am going to attempt to learn to bake a variety of very good breads this year.  I think to do that to my satisfaction, I need to work on the craft daily.  So that’s what I’m going to do every morning, and I’ll document the experience here.

(Don’t worry.  I’m not going to bake my way through Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.)

Wish me luck.  Join me if you’d like and how you’d like.  I’d love have some company for the trip.