The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Mini gauntlet and segue to more pastries

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Mini gauntlet and segue to more pastries

To an extent I'm now pretty content with basic loaf baking and find myself craving pastires more. Its funny how this obsession arose after finally giving up trying to find a baguette in usa that tastes like the real deal and finally figure well why not just learn how bake the darn things myself (this is typical behavior for me btw as ive countless other replications of foods that can only be found wherever it was they were invented - take the famous lebanese kanafe for example - wow ! what a treat). I find that if i havent baked bread for a few weeks I am always surprised what I was missing - the point being that your taste buds seem to take flavors for granted after a while and such is the case with good bread. Although the last few months have been concerned with shaping i do think flavor-wise I very closely nailed the authentic flavor months ago and much of that has to do with the flour I sourced from lepicerie.com. I will say it again, it is in incredible - there is no substitute - french baguettes made with T65 flour grown and milled in france taste a thousand times better, and, if the crumb nice and developed with a long cold ferment its very difficult to distinguish from the real thing. So that brings my taste buds to the next challenge - viennoise pastries - looks like a long haul ahead but lets see how it goes ...

Comments

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

that you will master those viennoise pastries! Too bad you don’t live close by as I would volunteer to be a taste tester. :-D

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Would be happy to move to montreal if thats nearby - also if thats indeed your location there'd be no need to bake thanks to all the great bakeries there (especially bagels)

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

but in the middle it, no where near Montreal unfortunately. We have some bakeries here but nothing outstanding imho. I even like my own bread better than the local wood fired artisan bread that is available. His bread is good but I prefer mine. 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

You'd like Victoria; it's very nice here. Lots of good bakeries too!

It's funny about the 'authentic' regional bread thing though. I've got Jewish customers from Montreal who swear my Deli Rye bread is the best thing they've ever tasted (including Montreal), and another customer who is currently visiting family in northern Italy, who says he can't wait to get back to my bread because "I haven't had a decent slice of bread since I got here"! Bread is a very specific thing, and you like what you like, right?

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

And that is a good thing! All sorts of varietuse ad kinds are made to please the different palates. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Canada but if you legalize pot there will be no stopping her.