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maurizio
The Perfect Loaf
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Homemade smooth apricot jam with maple and vanilla (plus a dash of brandy). Such fulfillment (now and later) from growing, picking, and processing your own fruit (the apricots picked by my son from my story a few days ago). Taking a few hours to wash, split, slice, boil, mix, jar -- a small task to keep the memory of summer through the rest of the year. A way to, as Kevin West says in his excellent book, 'save the season.' As a bread baker, making jam feels like a natural complement. And perhaps, it provides me a little daily variety (although frankly, good quality butter can always suffice in a pinch). It's worth even more when I open a jar in December and memories of picking fruit with my son return and put a smile on my face. A true investment. Now for some toast 👌🏼 3K 106
Beautiful signs of fermentation. Overnight pizza dough in bulk, about to be divided. Worked in 20% whole wheat flour into this batch (in addition to 00) and the dough feels great. 4K 64
Sunday French toast. Still my favorite and go-to recipe, the @tartinebaker baked version with lemon zest ✨ 2K 33
Diggin' the flavor on the double cut durum loaves posted yesterday. I was reading a baking book this morning, and they discussed how it's practically impossible for home bakers to get durum unless bought in large quantities — mind you, this book is about 20 years old at this point. It's incredible how far we've come in terms of having access to so many different grains (organic and not) these days. Thanks to those making it possible for us home bakers to have these beautiful options 🙏🏼 2K 31
Gotta love that double cut. 45% @centralmilling ABC, 30% CM type 85, 15% CM whole grain hard red, 10% @flourist 00 durum. About 85% hydration, 4.5% PFF (3 hr 100% hydration, 100% inoculation levain), 76F FDT, 3.5 hr bulk, overnight at 40F for 12 hours. Whew, that’s a lot of numbers and acronyms. 2K 27
Sourdough pain de mie light as a cloud. Fantastic flavor and texture, and the crust, while a tad dark, turned out wonderful. I ended up baking these after an overnight retard, which wasn’t planned but it was late and I was tired. I took them out in the morning to find they needed a bit more time on the counter to come up to room temp and proof further. When poked, the dough didn’t feel light and airy enough — easy enough fix: two hours at room temp and they were good to go (they passed the “poke test”). These came out perfectly fermented. 2K 72

Honey Whole Wheat and Barley Pan Loaf

Baked honey whole wheat and barley pan loaf

This charming1 and wholesome pan bread is as nutritious as it gets. And while I do have a particular fondness for pan loaves, especially when they use freshly milled flour, this honey whole wheat and barley pan loaf takes it to the next level with freshly milled flour, a little sweetening, a bit of (healthy) fat, and a porridge mix-in.

Yes, it’s chock-full of ingredients. Picking up the final, baked loaf is akin to picking up a concrete brick. I mean, with the barley porridge alone we’re inching our way toward the title of construction worker rather than baker. But! Much the same way a piece of jewelry has some value associated with its heft so does this nourishing bread. And believe me, while the overall loaf feels heavy in hand, each slice eats light and airy.

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  1. Quite amusingly, my grammar checker said the word “charming” and “bread” don’t work well together, and a different adjective should be chosen. I disagree.↩

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