Hi Fresh Loafers!
My name is Lexie Smith, and I'm a baker and artist, and a general advocate for real bread. I've worked as both a bread baker (albeit briefly in the "pro" capacity) and a pastry chef, and am now spending a lot of my time writing and building awareness around regional bread types from all over the world, the benefits of sourdough (in the GF age!!), and heirloom grains. I know that sounds like a vast assortment of bread related topics, but it ultimately comes down to a study of the place bread has held in society for millennia, the way it's shaped us and we've shaped it. The pendulum swing is comin! Humans want their bread. I've got a little site in the works on the matter called Bread on Earth, and would love the input of all my bread mentors aka y'all! The first component will be a Bread Web, which will be an interactive map that charts as many regional bread types as we can collect, and link them to their relatives around the globe. I'm hoping it will serve to highlight our similarities as much as it does our differences. If anyone has any bread type they'd like to suggest, I'm all ears.
I'm finally saying hello because so much of the last decade of my bread baking has been bolstered by the TFL community, and I thought it was time I voiced my gratitude and affection for such a dedicated and diverse group of likeminded folks. I wanted to let you know that I did a live segment online with the New York Times today (I'll be happy to link to it if anyone is interested!), in which I'm making some sourdough parathas and talking all about why bread matters, and it's received such an immensely positive reaction from the public. I doubt I would have gotten to this point without the inspiration and wealth of information I've found here over the years. So, again, thanks to TFL for keeping me awake and troubleshot and feeling all around supported through this journey. I'll fight the good fight of gluten advocacy til the day I die, right beside ya.
So finally, my first contribution! Here's a loaf I baked off today. It's an easy breezy 50% whole grain, a mix of whole spelt (from Champlain Valley Milling), Farmer Ground rye, and Olands whole wheat, the rest is KA AP. 80% hydration, 17% leaven, 2.5% salt. Gave it a 1 hour autolyse, 5 min hand mix, and a couple of S+F over the course of just two hours (I was rushed!), then shaped after 3.5 hours total out at room temp and popped in the fridge for 13 hours. The process had to be quick for a number of reasons but the loaf doesn't seem to have suffered much. But it'll all come down to flavor, which will have to wait until morning. I need to use this as a prop in a photo shoot tomorrow (I'm shoving bread in everyone's faces, I mean it!), so a crumb shot will come later.
And this is a glamour shot of some of the SD paratha dough rolled with redbud flowers I picked off the trees outside. I live in Queens, NY, so that's about the best kind of urban foraging I can do around here. The flowers are nice and tangy with a little chew, but subtle.
That's all for now! Looking forward to talking more with you all down the road.
