High Humidity Baking
So all is well in my kitchen, sealed away from the outside world. My AC is grumbling and coughing itself on to dispel the evil heat and then sleeping when satisfied with its cyclical endeaver. I pull the last loaf of crusty goodness out of the oven at about 3 am and decide to take a nap and allow them to cool before I'm off to the Market. I turn of the AC and wait until the rumbling settles into a sigh of resignation then close my eyes. 3 hours later my babies, my beautifully crackly crusted concoctions are now soft! Damn you humidity! Of course we all know it doesn't effect the flavor but the SOUND!! The sound of the crunchy crust succumbing to your favorite bread knife! I think we can all agree that there is a certain glee when the loaf:
1) Looks exactly the way you imagined it, maybe better
2) Tastes better than you ever imagined
3) Squeals a protest when the knife rips through it's crunchy skin. I giggle when this happens
Needless to say I look forward to baking in the winter here. If you are wondering where 'here' is it's Bermuda - the enemy of the crusty loaf.