The Taste of Artisan Bread and Jam
Hello All,
Glad to have found you all! Been baking sourdough since the age of 9 with varying degrees of success. Wasn't till recently that I decided that it wouldn't hurt to improve the skill set some. What a surprise! The old bread recipes of flour, water, salt, scalded milk, sugar, and oil or shortening (think Sally Lund here) has given way to the Bread Law: Flour, Water, Sea Salt and Sourdough only. One other item is time. I've found that working bread baking into my schedule took a bit of wrangling with recipe and technique.
I happened upon Daniel Leaader's book, "Local Breads" some weeks ago and the old flame was rekindled. Since then I've acquired "Bread Alone" and "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. The enjoyment of organic artisan sourdough breads with my Wife's artisan organic jams is really something to annoy other people with. Also, open faced sandwiches of poached egg with slivered smoked salmon and fresh chives is unbelievable. The accentuation of food with artisan bread is hard to describe without samples so I'll quit that subject now but I'm sure many on this site are already there and I'm glad to join you all.
Bon Apetit,
Wild-Yeast
P.S. The best sourdough in San Francisco is baked in La Brea...,