All Things Good For You
Flour, yeast, salt, an egg, honey, water, and beer.
When confronted with a beer like this, there's really only one thing a baker can think of:
"What kind of bread will it make?"
We'll find out tomorrow. Right now we're on the first ferment with just water and whole wheat flour, in a few hours, we'll add the rest of the ingredients, drag the bread through several rises, then retard the loaves overnight. Beer bread first thing in the morning for us!
In other news, I think I might just be getting good at this again.
My French bread, which I've been making regularly once a week. Oooooh, look at that crust. And it crackles when you take it out of the oven.
On one particular occasion, and I remember it as if it just occurred though it happened more than ten years ago, we took our customary sample bites and heard the crust crackle in what I now think of as The Moment. I said to my assistant, "That's it! That's the sound! It's as important as the taste. It's the sound of perfection and it is so deeply satisfying!" Then I stopped my exclamation because my eyes were watering and I was beginning, in this perfect bread moment, to cry.
"The Sound of Crust"
Brother Juniper's Bread Book
And if you had decided that you're going to be a baker, and had been doubting that you could ever get back up to speed in the amount of time you've alloted yourself to relearn everything so maybe you've totally wandered off down the wrong way, and then you teared up reading that bit, then maybe, just maybe you actually are going in the right direction.
When confronted with a beer like this, there's really only one thing a baker can think of:
"What kind of bread will it make?"
We'll find out tomorrow. Right now we're on the first ferment with just water and whole wheat flour, in a few hours, we'll add the rest of the ingredients, drag the bread through several rises, then retard the loaves overnight. Beer bread first thing in the morning for us!
In other news, I think I might just be getting good at this again.
My French bread, which I've been making regularly once a week. Oooooh, look at that crust. And it crackles when you take it out of the oven.
On one particular occasion, and I remember it as if it just occurred though it happened more than ten years ago, we took our customary sample bites and heard the crust crackle in what I now think of as The Moment. I said to my assistant, "That's it! That's the sound! It's as important as the taste. It's the sound of perfection and it is so deeply satisfying!" Then I stopped my exclamation because my eyes were watering and I was beginning, in this perfect bread moment, to cry.
"The Sound of Crust"
Brother Juniper's Bread Book
And if you had decided that you're going to be a baker, and had been doubting that you could ever get back up to speed in the amount of time you've alloted yourself to relearn everything so maybe you've totally wandered off down the wrong way, and then you teared up reading that bit, then maybe, just maybe you actually are going in the right direction.