Wild Yeast

The range of flatbreads contributed to last month’s BreadBakingDay is nothing short of amazing. Check out Petra’s roundup and prepare to be inspired. And now I’m delighted to say it’s my turn to host my favorite all-bread event.

What holiday, festival, or special event are you celebrating this month? I’m thinking of Easter… Purim… St. Patrick’s Day… the vernal equinox… what others can you tell me about?

As one of the oldest and most universal of foods, bread is associated with celebrations in every part of the world. For this month’s BreadBakingDay, you are invited to share your own spring holiday bread tradition, explore one you’re not yet familiar with, or start a new one.

To participate, choose any seasonal holiday or event you’d like to honor with a special bread*. On or before April 1:

1. Bake a bread to celebrate or represent your holiday.
2. Post the bread on your blog, with a link back to this post.
3. Email me at , and include:
   • Your name
   • Your blog’s name and url
   • The name of your bread and its post’s url (permalink)
   • The occasion your bread celebrates
   • Your location
   • If possible, a 200-pixel-wide photo
   • Whether you’d like me to notify you by email when the roundup is posted (which will be by April 5)

*Birthday breads will also be accepted, in honor of the March birthday of BBD’s charming founder and steward, Zorra.

These blossom-shaped rolls are my entry for this month’s Paper Chef. The challenge presented by Ilva (Lucullian Delights) was to create a “flower”-themed dish using polenta, pistachios, and chili peppers.

Although Ilva helpfully suggested several culinary flowers one might incorporate, I chose to fulfill the theme through shape rather than ingredient. I hope this is considered an acceptable interpretation. Also, although the bin from which I scooped the coarsely ground cornmeal in the store was clearly labeled “Polenta,” I wonder if maybe it’s not technically polenta until it’s boiled. I didn’t boil it because I wanted to retain some bite to contribute to the bread’s texture.

But even if I’m disqualified on one or both of those counts, these are some tasty rolls that were fun to conceive and bake.

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I could argue that this is nominally on-topic, because I often see this little beauty flitting about outside my kitchen window as I am baking. Last year her nest was directly in front of said window; this year it took me a while to discover its location, once she started making daily appearances in late January.

Happily, the tiny nest turns out to be still well within easy viewing (and photographing) range if I step outside. But I didn’t discover it until the eggs were already hatched, so I’m not sure exactly how old the two hatchlings are. By the look of them, only a few days at most. Their black, shriveled heads are about the size of small blueberries, each with a bright orange beak hardly wider than the tine of a fork.
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There is no right or wrong way to bake. Or rather, the “right” way is whatever way has you aching with pleasure when you pull a lovely loaf or perfect pie from the oven and taste that first bite of heaven.

So when I say – rather loudly, sorry – “WEIGH YOUR INGREDIENTS, PEOPLE!” please understand that’s just a suggestion. Okay, a very strong suggestion. Some would even say I’m fanatical about it.

If you don’t believe that my way is the only one that merits consideration, think about this experiment I did with a few friends not long ago, using my favorite problem child, flour:

Everyone measured out one cup of white flour from the same bag, using their usual measuring technique. When we weighed each cupful on my kitchen scale we found they ranged from 127 to 148 grams. That’s a difference of up to 15%.

Don’t think 15% makes much difference? In the world of bread, it’s huge. Using 15% more flour can transform what’s supposed to be ciabatta into something more like French bread, or sandwich bread into something as stiff as a bagel. And vice versa.

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