Give me my sin again, we are in National Poetry month, and it is around the anniversary of both the death and birth of Sir William Shakespeare. So, I have a sonnet to share which likens love to food, and the difficulty of finding a middle way—contentment—between too little and too much, starvation and gluttoned […]
Category: Yeast Breads
Pain de Regime Sur Poolish
Rye bread is best when prepared by the sponge method, I believe. This bread is SUPER healthy, and tasty, but, as Janelle points out, needs a little butter. Its crumb is the color of ash, almost a lavender-grey. When I eat a slice, I feel as though I have had two breakfasts. One slice sustains […]
Pain de Son
This is not exactly wheat bread, but French bread that has bran flakes, so, shall we say, the bread has wheatishness. The old-dough addition provides some acidity and flavor to what would otherwise be a more typically bland bran bread. Very tasty, and powerfood for the pipes if you happen to have a jazz band […]
Rosemary or Parmesan Focaccia Bread
“Every spirit passing through the world fingers the tangible and mars and the mutable, and finally has come to look and not to buy.” Marilynne Robinson, in Housekeeping This tangible is worth a finger or two. I ate, easily, six pieces. To mar this mutable seems a lovely thing. As close to purchase as it […]
Pain Blanc Au Levain
As if I weren’t getting enough of French words in the series of recipes I have endeavored from The Village Baker, tonight I watched the French foreign film The Intouchables with a certain little club we started at Calvary, Filmosopher’s Fellowship. The plot traces an unlikely friendship between two men on either side of cultural, […]
Pain Complet Aux Currant
If the soul has a smell, it is the smell of old books, and possibly wheat bread. The Divine Comedy of Dante offers me its soul smell this morning. I have been remiss, I realize, in not sharing much poetry during April—the National Month of Poetry! I turned to the Purgatorio, level: Gluttony, to find […]
Pain Compagnon Au Levain
The French word compagnon is from the Latin cum panis, to signify the person with whom we share bread. We are sharing our bread today with Karl-Peter’s parents Ralph and Marilyn, who arrived at four this morning, having driven straight through the mountains to Minnesota from Seattle for spring break. Such a blessing to have […]
Ricotta Calzones
Traveled across an ocean, admittedly of corn, to arrive in Iowa City last night for the Examined Life Conference to which I brought my usual song and dance, and this time, one more song and dance. I have a travel buddy, the infamous Linda Drozdowicz, medical school classmate, aka, the only person you can call […]
Pain de Campagne Pate Fermentee
Pate Fermentee, or Old Dough Method, is great for people who want to make a bunch of dough and freeze it for later use. Take a cup-full of old dough from the freezer, let it thaw and rise for an hour or two, and then you can use it as a starter. Bread made by […]
Pain de Campagne Sur Poolish
Campagne is a “traditional country loaf” made in France. Its crust is dark and thick, almost caramelized, and dusted with flour. A certain French philosopher, who I happen to admire not only for his Meditations but for his persistent Zooey Deschanel haircut, as very few men can pull off bangs, once wisely said this: “Wonder […]