BREAD DAD

[m o l l y]

Korneel eats a lot of honey. We sometimes buy 4-kilo buckets of it at lil' Moroccan grocery stores. I guess other people use like restaurant storage containers? I mean, a pot and hat would do in a pinch.

[Evan.V.N.S.J.]

Made a bucket of bread today.

This is almost the exact recipe I use, except I make I think like half as much at a time because I don't have a container with a lid that is big enough for the full bucket.

I've found that how well it turns out depends a lot on how long I leave the Dutch Oven in the Normal (Non Dutch) oven before putting the dough in

Molly, are Dutch Ovens called Flemish Ovens where you live? Or just Ovens?

[willowowow]

GARY'S BEER BREAD

*pour it into an oiled bread pan OR GARY'S RECOMMENDATION a small cast iron dutch oven if you have a small enough one


Gary

Gary- how small is "small enough?"

Also I baked my first sourdough loaves this weekend under the direct text/facetime tutelage of MRS.UncleBoatShoes and one loaf turned out very good! while the other did not, thanks to poor scoring. I did cry bitter tears following a "sloppy transfer" from proofing bowl to baking pot but it was overall an enjoyable process.

[yourfriendclaire]

I’ve got a focaccia swelling up like a balloon on my kitchen counter right now! Yeast loves a heatwave

[GARY-19]

GARY'S BEER BREAD

*pour it into an oiled bread pan OR GARY'S RECOMMENDATION a small cast iron dutch oven if you have a small enough one


Gary

Gary- how small is "small enough?"

Also I baked my first sourdough loaves this weekend under the direct text/facetime tutelage of MRS.UncleBoatShoes and one loaf turned out very good! while the other did not, thanks to poor scoring. I did cry bitter tears following a "sloppy transfer" from proofing bowl to baking pot but it was overall an enjoyable process.

2qt Dutch oven

[m o l l y]

Made a bucket of bread today.

Molly, are Dutch Ovens called Flemish Ovens where you live? Or just Ovens?

I think they are just called pots, cause they are kind of just what everyone uses.
But homies were ENDLESSLY amused that putting someone's head under the sheets and farting is called a Dutch Oven in my homeland. Why, they ask, WHY??

For all of you who are curious though, Brussels sprouts are just called sprouts here.

[Evan.V.N.S.J.]

Is "going dutch" just called "going?"

[m o l l y]

yes.

[Lucky Luc]

What about double dutch busses? Are they just called "one bus here and another bus there?"

[m o l l y]

yes.

[yourfriendclaire]

I made a big focaccia dough (not bucket-sized alas) a few days ago and tonight I had the inspired idea (while meditating) to make focaccia pizza. I think it will prolly be very good & look forward to reporting back.

Best Regards,
yourfriendclaire

[ritchey]

when you stick your finger in a dike to stop a flood is it just called a "little boy"

[m o l l y]

"Little boying" is our favorite summer pastime. It will be impossible during quar. Too many people jostling to the front of the dike.

In other words, yes.

[m o l l y]

Don't even ask about flying Dutchmen...

[ritchey]

when u jump rope with two ropes is it just called DOUBLE

[ritchey]

oh also when your spouse is mad at you do you just say you're "in with the wife"

[ritchey]

oh I have another question, when you talk about the movie "Dutch" do you just not say a title

[m o l l y]

As in, "I was in with the wife because I mentioned brewing Kombucha again to my husband." Yes.

[ritchey]

!!!!!

[m o l l y]

oh I have another question, when you talk about the movie "Dutch" do you just not say a title

I've NEVER tried!

[m o l l y]

Made my second beer bread. This time with a slightly sweet and sour Flemish red ale. It is currently cooling on a box grater.

[ritchey]

delightful!
The different beers do generate subtly different flavor profiles and outcomes. Gary made one the other day with a sour beer and the resulting bread was indeed a little sour. It's so fun

[RCH]

I made a beer bread in approximately 2003 and it tasted like an aluminum can of random light beer, which is what I used. At that time I knew not of beer or its many facets.

Molly... sour, fermented beers are my favorite and, when I lived in Portland, I was onto the Belgian-style underground of local caskeries. I have even decided that if I could pick any place in Europe to visit, I would travel to Belgium and learn about the funkiest, fruitiest brews that this world has to offer. Is that what your life is like all the time?

[m o l l y]

You can compare beer in Belgium to cheese in France. It is simply the way of the folk. Each village makes their own. Every simple cafe (bar) will have a list of at least 20 and each beer is served in its own glass. If it is not, there will be apologies and explanations. You realize you are acclimated to this new land when you reach for a beer list and not a single one suits your current mood.
Around Brussels is where the raging sour yeast mothers live and breathe. Brussels has a lot of yeast(s) in the air. And you are right, when the option is there, always choose old gueuze. It is the very best beverage and it is a very dear bud to me.
I have a local project I have been wanting to do, which is to make a google maps layer (maybe? or maybe there is a better option?) with all of the cafes in Brussels that sell old gueuze. Which ones they have and what they charge for them. Brussels is a cafe town! It kind of came of age as a place in the turn of the century and you see that in the cafe culture. I would like to be in any neighborhood in town and know where I can get a cold gueuze. That is, if cafes exist in the new world order...

Beer is also cheap here so when I dump a Chimey bleu, delicately made by monks in Ardennes, into my bread dough, it is with love and respect but also it cost be like a buck.

[ritchey]

this is incredible. What a wonderful portrait of a fabulous mythic land.

[RCH]

Even more epic than I knew.

[ritchey]

I have watched a ton of sourdough vids during this nearly decade long journey I've been on to master sourdough, a journey I now finally realize is never-ending and will always be riven with great fissures of peril and heartbreak. But anyway today I stumbled on the best vid I've ever seen, and I'm kind of unable to describe why I like it so much. It combines good science explanations with a chill "what me worry" 'tude (I love how he just throws whatever random flours he has around the house in); his close-up shots are somehow clearer and more instructive than other vids I've seen (his poke-test is nonpareil! I've never seen it make more sense); this is the FIRST TIME I have ever understood "baker's percentages"; and even though he is handsome and has a fancy-ass hipster kitchen I somehow find it soothing rather than annoying. I do recommend using cloths instead of cling wrap for obvious reasons but other than that I can find nothing to object to here in terms of technique, and I learned so many things and feel empowered anew to re-embrace my breading journey.

But first and foremost--check out that use of starter discard!!!!!!!!!!!! (at 2:15) An even lower bar than those crumpets we were discussing earlier. This got me SO PSYCHED to get back/deeper into my sourdough jam. I read through all the adoring comments on the vid and one person points out that those pancakes are called Toutons and "are very popular in Newfoundland," so that seems cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJEHsvW2J6M

[willowowow]

This is a gread vid, [mention]ritchey[/mention]! I especially appreciate the section on shaping the loaves. That is for me the most stressful part of the process, I guess because the recipe I use is so fussy and particular- verging on severe- about how to do it? But this guy was just slapping and flapping and his loaf turned out great?! Also I agree that his discard usage is game-changing! I am very excited to bake this week.

One thing I don't understand is why some recipes, like the one I use, call for a leaven before the autolyse, while others have you autolyse first, then add the starter directly in? Why?

[ritchey]

I don’t know! I think it maybe just goes to show you that actually it’s crazily flexible and not uptight like so many contemporary sourdough books make it seem? Like some flour, some water, some starter, mixed up and left to ferment between 4-24 hours, will produce some form of bread; anything beyond that is just fine tuning