Book to table, to oven, to mouth!
A story, in pictures, about how a bread loaf came to life - and a cool book.
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During our last trip to NYC (2017), my family and I went to a Goodwill Store somewhere near a Gray’s Papaya (and after a bite in there of course) to get some thrifty stuff, and I ended up with a pretty cool book… for like $5 bucks.
That was a four for one kind of trip. I mean, yes, New York City - the snow, the lights, the sax playing somewhere in the background in Central Park. And for someone living in Florida where snow is not a common thing, or a thing at all - it was magical. But…
I also bought what was the latest Anthony Bourdain’s book (Appetites A Cookbook).
I got to see Dr. Michio Kaku (Theoretical Physicist extraordinaire) whom I love to listen to; and who walked by me and I wanted a picture but I got cold feet. Literally and figuratively. That day was cold as…
I got to hang out on the sidewalk and watch young Bruce Wayne (not yet Batman) while they were filming the show Gotham in Chinatown) - near our cheap but cool hotel.
My backpack felt heavy with two hard cover books, thousands of steps (some of those steps were carrying my daughter when she was very tired), but the smell was perfect when I opened it back at our hotel room. The scent of a recently printed book, along with the smell of another book that has seen some kitchens and experience, was invigorating. I wanted to cook and bake right away.
I told my wife that next time we are in NYC I'd like to rent a place with a small kitchen.
The funny thing about cookbooks (for me at least) is that I don't always buy them to make the recipes right away. I court them… I smell them… I caress their pages in search for their essence. I get sensual with them. I romanticize them.
Of this book (Bien Cuit), I've just taken some pointers to make bagels and sourdough, but never made a full recipe - until days ago. Not that I made the bread days ago, but because the process started days before days ago. It continued two days before, and it recommends that the best rest time after baking is 24 hours. So… I am eating bread a few days after.
But I'm not sharing a recipe with you today. I will show you pictures of the (my) process of making a white bread loaf that's in the book, along with some notes. And other pictures I took from the book itself. Enjoy!
The bread came out sweet and soft, but denser than your regular sandwich bread (which is the result that I was looking for). This result may not have happened because of some issue with the recipe itself. I had everything it asked for, and measured it exactly how it requires. The issue was me.
At some point in the recipe process it calls for ‘8 times’ of rolling and tucking; which I didn’t do exactly like it is. And on top of that, instead of ‘8’ I saw a ‘15’… and instead of ‘times’ I saw ‘minutes’. That bad I am!
You see, I have been a bad cook! I have worked at restaurants, given cooking classes, created menus, and written one or two recipes for others (which I’d like to do again). And yet, to follow a recipe ‘by the book’ for my pleasure is kind of hard. I am a little impatient with some things and waiting three days to complete a bread recipe is tough. Necessary if you really want to learn about it, I know; and I am working on it. It is not like I have not done it before, but with long process recipes I tend to choose my battles, and I don’t always do so well!
To my wife, my stepson, and my daughter the bread was incredible. In the top 5 on the best breads that I’ve made. To me? It was amazingly good, but the texture was not to my satisfaction. Do I think it was in my top five? I’d say yes!
I am not sure if I will try this recipe again any time soon, although I do plan to do it again (hopefully following the instructions to the dot), but I have been searching among my books for a simpler recipe to make our homemade weekly sandwich bread. More on that as it happens. For now, I will leave you with pictures from this splendid book.
I am in love with the pictures and the pages (the whole design) in this book. They make it feel mystically romantic. The texture feels like there is flour on the pages, as if it just came from the bakery’s kitchen - where it was inoculated with it, deep down into the fabric of the essence of the book itself. You can feel that the book was made by masters in their skill - the recipes, the writing, editing, pictures, design and printing.
Bien Cuit, by Zachary Golper and Peter Kaminsky
Photography by Thomas Schauer
Design by Regan Arts