April 22, 2011 - 10:45am
I can bake again!
My old stove malfunctioned and I spent months with a stovetop but no oven. Finally my appliance-repairman friend found the right part and got the oven working again. I mixed my first poolish in months that very night, and baked yesterday. I was surprised by how much I had forgotten during those long months. There's so much to baking that depends on feel and can't be covered in a printed recipe. But after some struggles to get the correct hydration, I managed a pair of wholewheat boules.
Oh! The rich taste! The crumb! So moist and springy! After subsisting for months on the lackluster products of a supermarket bakery, I was in heaven.
Love your oven, friends. You don't appreciate it till you lose it.
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When we were forced out of our house just after the ice storm in 1998, we had to stay in an apartment hotel with the tiniest kitchen and the tiniest oven I'd ever seen. I made bread in that oven after tasting some store bought, and never has bread tasted so darn good. I am always grateful for my oven!
I never take it for granted anymore!
I had neither an oven nor a stovetop for 2 1/2 weeks while the floor in our kitchen was being redone. The man we hired to do it was also commissioned to do the bathroom as well, and he made the stupid decision of starting both and stopping the work halfway through to do other jobs at other houses. The whole time my oven/stovetop just sat there, unable to be hooked up to the propane, while I googled whatever recipes I could find for the microwave! So horrific. The man is a family friend and was doing it cheaply, so I couldn't complain... much.
So while it wasn't as much time as you had to go without, I feel your pain, and am glad you finally got to bake again. The feeling is tremendous.