Wild Yeast

Do these baguettes look like award winners? Maybe not as I’ve made them, but their formula and execution by Sam Fromartz, author of the blog Chews Wise, recently earned Sam’s loaves the title of best baguette in Washington D.C.

With that impressive credential behind it, I wanted to see for myself how Sam’s baguettes compared to the poolish-based ones I usually bake. (I’ve never posted those on Wild Yeast, but it’s the same formula as the poolish boule I guest-posted on Baking and Books a while ago.)

Sam’s recipe contains small amounts of whole wheat flour and sourdough starter (along with some baker’s yeast), and the final dough is fermented overnight in the refrigerator. I found the resulting flavor to be less sweet and a bit more assertive than a poolish baguette, without being overtly sour. Crisp crust, light interior, definitely a winner I will keep in my repertoire!

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This month, Jen of use real butter challenged the Daring Cooks to make potstickers from scratch. That means wrappers too, and that means dough, and that means I love it!

Although we could fill the dumplings with anything we liked, I chose to stick with Jen’s pork filling, following her recipe exactly. For anyone who thinks this was not daring enough, let me just point out that pan-frying potstickers involves pouring water into a pan of hot oil and, in Jen’s words, “duck[ing] while everything spatters violently.”

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See this week’s yeast spottings…

These golden orange loaves are an adaptation of a recipe found on straightgrade.com, a wonderful resource geared towards professional bread bakers but with much great information for anyone who loves to bake. There, Tod Bramble highlights bakers and bakeries around the US and occasionally shares one of their formulas. This Spelt-Carrot bread is originally from B & R Artisan Breads in Framingham, Massachusetts. Thanks to Jeremy for calling my attention to this unique and delicious bread!

The dough is a dream to work with, light and supple and fragrant. I almost didn’t want to bake it, I just wanted to keep my hands and my nose in the dough forever.

I suggest is letting the bread sit for about four hours after baking to let the flavors mellow. I found that when I tasted it just as it was cool (at about two hours), it had a slight bitter taste to it. After another couple of hours, however, that was gone and the bread tasted sweet and nutty and golden.

It made a lovely sandwich too.

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When I was in graduate school, we had a talk on cultural differences by an anthropologist who told a story about one of her students.

The student was in the South American rainforest, waiting for a ferry that would take her down the river. The attendant at the ferry landing told her the boat would arrive at 2:00. She waited, and looked at her watch. 2:00 came and went. 2:30 came and went. 3:00 came and went.

She remarked to the attendant that the ferry was late. The attendant said, “No, it’s not 2:00 yet.”

The student pointed to her watch and said, “Yes, it is well past 2:00.”

The attendant replied, “No, the boat has not come yet. Therefore it is not 2:00.”

So it is with bread.

When the recipe says mix for 10 minutes, check the gluten. If it’s not developed, the 10 minutes have not passed.

If the loaves need to proof for two hours, check them at 60 minutes. If they’re ready, then two hours have gone by.

When your calculation says the bread should finish baking at 2:00, look at it. If it is still pale, it’s not 2:00 yet.

(This is a camera, and a very good one. More about that later.)

I know I ask a lot of you. Please send me your breads for YeastSpotting. Please weigh your ingredients. Please love baking as much as I do.

Now I have a particularly cheeky thing to ask: Please give me your money. Before you scroll on down to the next post in your feed reader, hear me out! (Psst! camera, camera…)

On October 18, 2009 I will walk 26.2 miles in the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. I have never done anything like this before.

I know why I’m doing it: to push myself; to step outside my box; to challenge my heart, my lungs, my feet, my will; to keep all the bread I eat from getting the better of my health; to raise money for a great cause.

But frankly, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do it. I am not what you would call an endurance walker — yet. This is where Team in Training comes in. They have assured me that if I do my part, they will train me to go the distance. They will teach me, coach me, support me — so I will be able to walk the 26 miles.

But I do have to do my part: I have to show up at twice-weekly training sessions and walk increasingly long distances with my coaches and other team members. On most other days, I have to walk and do core strength or weight training on my own. And I have to raise at least $2500.

Say what? $2500? If you haven’t heard of it, Team in Training is an organization that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by training people like me who are not athletes to participate in endurance events in return for us raising fairly large chunks of change. The money we raise goes to LLS to fund research towards finding a cure for blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

If supporting cancer research is not reason enough, consider some other reasons to help me out here:

• You love me. (I can dream, can’t I?)
• You like me.
• You can’t stand me and relish the thought of all those blisters on my feet.
• You want a chance at winning this camera.

WHAT camera?