Wild Yeast

What’s the coolest thing about Carol Peterman of TableFare being the winner of the Bread Science book giveaway? I’m hoping that for Carol it will be reading and learning from Emily Buehler’s great book (available here, if you’re not Carol). But for me, it was that I had actually met Carol in person only a few hours before I did the random drawing, at the International Food Blogger Conference in Seattle.

It was a weekend filled with speakers, food (bread above by Bakery Nouveau), and wine, all of which was lovely. But the thing that stood out the most for me was meeting some terrific people with terrific blogs. Check these out; I can tell you that they are written by winning people:

1 Family. Friendly. Food • 100 Miles • Adventures of a Hungry Girl

Brownies For Dinner • Cooking With Amy • Eating Out Loud

Fork This • Gardeners Like Us • Hedonia

Little Brown Girl 2.0 • Lovely Olio • Passion 4 Eating • Phoo-D

Pinch My Salt • Plumpest Peach • Simply…Gluten Free

Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy • TableFare • The Daily Spud

The Recipe Girl • The Well-Tempered Chocolatier • Wright Eats

See this week’s yeast spottings…

I am pretty much a one-trick pony in the kitchen. If it has yeast, I’m good. Which is not to say I don’t have my share of failures and faux pas with bread, but I’m not afraid of it.

About a year and a half ago I joined the Daring Bakers, which once a month takes me out of my yeast-bound comfort zone and into the world of cakes, pies, and other foreign objects. Sometimes the results have been quite lovely, sometimes not so much, but I always learn something, and I have to say I have felt pretty damned proud of myself for being so damned Daring twelve times a year.

But at least with Daring Bakers, it’s, well, still baking. Now I have a whole new reason to hyperventilate:

Daring Cooks.

If it’s true that I don’t bake cakes, it’s doubly true that I don’t cook. Therefore, there is only one way to explain my willing membership in this new cadre of Daring, knife-wielding people: I am insane. Either that or I can’t stand the thought of not being part of this action, as fear-inspiring, embarrassing, and painful as it is bound to be.

I really hope our fearless leaders Lis and Ivonne don’t decide to start the Daring Sword Swallowers any time soon.

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If your high school science classes were anything like mine, they were never like this.

The Krebs cycle, hydrogen bonds, osmosis, asexual reproduction. Does the mere mention of this stuff make you start to hyperventilate? Or fall on your knees and thank all that is good and powerful that you will never have to endure those fathomless lectures again?

If it does, then it’s a shame Emily Buehler wasn’t your teacher, and Bread Science your textbook.

Buehler, a PhD chemist who turned out to have a calling as a professional baker and baking teacher, gets down and dirty with the science of why bread works. What is fermentation, exactly, and why does it make bread taste good? How does the seeming magic of gluten development really occur? What makes those atoms want to nestle together in just the right way to produce a lofty loaf? Buehler tells and illustrates all, more clearly than any teacher or textbook I have ever had.

But even if you don’t think molecules and reactions are at all your thing and you just want to know how to bake better bread, read the book. You can defer Chapter 2, the hard-core science chapter, until you’re ready for it, and skip ahead to the chapters on the how-to of bread baking. No recipes here (well, maybe one or two), but tons of good information on the why and and the how of preferments, mixing, shaping, proofing, and baking.

Because she is generous in addition to being smart and talented, Emily Buehler has a signed copy of Bread Science to send to one of you seasoned or budding bread scientists. A comment about your best or worst science class memory gets you a chance to win. The deadline to enter the random drawing is 11:59 PM PDT on Saturday, May 16; international entries welcome!

In case you’ve been napping for the past few days and somehow missed the news, Nicole of Pinch My Salt is leading a bread-baking charge: she and over 100 (!) other fearless bakers will be baking their way through Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, loaf by delicious, challenging, gorgeous loaf. If you’d like to be part of this journey, I think there’s still time to get on board! To follow their progress, check out their Flickr group.

Also, make sure you visit the BreadBakingDay #19 roundup at Cindystar for all of your Spring Bread needs.

And, as always, although I don’t say it enough, thank you so much to all of you who share your amazing stuff here.

See this week’s yeast spottings…

If you’re moving across the country and want to take your sourdough starter with you, or want to mail some to a friend, or want to save a backup of a particularly well-loved starter as insurance against accidental loss, drying your starter can be the way to go.

Drying a liquid starter is simple and fast, and reviving it to baking strength takes less time, and is easier, than starting a new one from scratch.

Before drying your starter, make sure it is strong and vibrant. If you normally refrigerate it, take it out and feed it for a few days, as you would before using it in a dough.

When it is good and strong, feed it a final time, then ferment it for about half the time you would normally go until the next feeding. You want the yeast to have something left to feed on while they are falling asleep.

Then, using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of starter on a piece of parchment, put it somewhere where it will be free from flying debris, and wait for it to dry completely. This will take approximately overnight, but the exact time will vary according to the hydration of your starter, how thickly your smear it, and the temperature and humidity in your house. Make sure it is completely bone dry, or you run the risk of mold.

Here’s how mine looked just after spreading it out to dry:

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