Potato Rosemary Bread
Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 10:23PM
Now is when I confess my love-hate relationship with Peter Reinhart and, more specifically, with his tome, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.
As I am working this year to slow things down, I find that this book fits the bill and I am grateful for the challenge from Nicole, the food blogger at Pinch My Salt, to bake each and every type of bread described in this thick volume. Nowhere in the entire book will one find the words quick or easy. This is hardcore, Old World baking. The loaves take days to prepare. And when the bread emerges from the oven, it is perfect. It quiets my family at the table. This is real bread and every attempt brands me a real baker.
Take the Potato Rosemary Bread I made this week. I don’t know what I loved more about this recipe, its heaping cup of mashed potatoes or the succulent cloves of roasted garlic.
And as I was working through the instructions on Day Two, I stopped in my tracks and nearly swooned. Pepper! I had missed it in my preliminary readings (more on this later). A bread with pepper! Oh my! I considered leaving my husband and heading off to find Peter Reinhart for surely he is my soul mate.
But right about now is when it becomes impossible to ignore the hate part of my experience with the recipes. Bread baking is both an art and a science. On both fronts, these recipes are the baker’s version of the X-Games. And let’s just say that I am a little out of shape.
After choosing a bread to tackle, I read the recipe thoroughly and scour the kitchen and various specialty stores to make sure I have all of the ingredients. Then I carefully consider our schedule to verify that I have time available in the correct increments necessary for the recipe. I read the recipe again the night before I begin.
Often the first day’s steps can be completed easily in the late afternoon with WJ. Day One typically involves some water (at room temperature), some yeast (quick acting), and some flour (carefully measured). What could go wrong?
Let’s see… I could forget to leave out water and have to take a break for the water to adjust to the correct temperature or else play a crazy guessing game trying to remember what room temperature feels like, which risks killing the yeast, quick acting or not. Or I could turn the mixer on, set on SLOW albeit, and watch, jaw dropping to the floor, as the carefully measured flour rises up like a cloud and showers down on the counter.
On Day Two, when the tasks are divided into mixing, kneading, fermenting, forming, proofing, and baking, any number of things could go awry. I could forget to add the rosemary until after both the mixing and the initial kneading. I could knead, and knead, and knead and still find the internal temperature of the dough to be three degrees below Reinhart’s guidelines.
I could get so distracted by the temperature issue that I miss the instructions tucked in at the end of that dense paragraph, the instructions about spreading those miraculous cloves of roasted garlic over flattened dough and kneading them in before the two hours of fermenting and one to two hours of proofing. I could miss that detail entirely until I spot the garlic on the counter while sliding the nearly finished loaves into the oven and be left with no other option than to squish the garlic and spread it in globs over the top of the dough, hoping for the best.
At each turn, there is an opportunity for failure. Which brings me right back to the love, because nearly every time I come face to face with Mr. Reinhart and the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, I walk away amazed that somehow I have been able to keep up.
What challenges have left you feeling suprised with yourself?
Baking, Mom's goals
Reader Comments (15)
Can you please be my next door neighbor? Because then I would ask to borrow a loaf or two as opposed to just a cup of flour!!
Gypsymama, Our neighbors are moving... come on over! I would be happy to share. It might mean I would be able to locate my hip bones again. This food blogging thing is not kind to the waistline.
Beautifully written, and beautiful bread.
Your comment sounds like a tweet PW made sunday morning!
About food blogging and hips? Yes... she made me reach down and pinch and it was a frightening experience!
i saw lentils!
What a great post Emily. I wanted to eat the bread all the way through.
My challenges these days are everywhere and so far I'm enjoying everyone of them. Of course they all have to do with making......art ...not food:) But there are similarities.
I will be giving this bread a try, hopefully this weekend. It looks so good.
Don't forget to add the roasted garlic before the rising and proofing! As you can see, when spread on the top, they become little black chunks that you just want to pick off. :-)
Oh, and Mom, you'll want some brie. This bread is great with brie!
Haha. Crazy baking session, no? I find that bread is very forgiving in a lot of things, if you know how to handle it properly. But your bread turned out beautiful nevertheless!
I sort of feel like I need to "cram" like I'm studying for a test the night before i start a recipe. I miss so many details. I need a spreadsheet with a timer that says "DO THIS NOW." But it's good bread!
Loved your post about this bread! It was one of our favorites too, and I agree.... so many things CAN (and will) go wrong with bread baking... but when all goes well, it is incredibly rewarding!
Wonderful post. The line. "It quiets my family at the table." really resonated with me! Despite all your challenges, the bread looks yummy. The photos are beautiful, especially the ones of the garlic and the thermometer.
Came back to poke around your blog before work, like I have extra time in the morning :) This is one of my favorite loaves. I have a backyard full of rosemary, sometimes I leave it out. This and the multigrained extraordinaire have made it worthwhile, oh and the the sourdough, ok maybe too many to list.