Our Quintessential Daily Bread

I started baking bread not out of craftsmanship or enjoyment, but of necessity. After being fed by the wonderful Zingermann's bakery when we were living in Ann Arbor, we're at a point of no return to the sponge-like, flavorless, and nutritionally deficient kind as such like Wonderbread. Finding good bread in Asia is not easy, since bread is not an Asian diet staple, and in general, Asians prefer the spongey and cake-like mouth feel rather than the crisp crust and firm crumbs of "western" breads. But Singapore is a pleasant surprise, as we found a handful of quality bakeries giving loaves that can stand up to the "western" palate. Only one problem - the price tags. We would find ourselves spending about US$20 each week on bread, while back in Ann Arbor, even though Zingermann's is known for its haute cuisine prices, we spent about $6 for a loaf of paesano, sometimes throwing in a $3 loaf of good sandwich bread from Trader Joe's, and we're all set. A $20-a-week budget for bread is a bit steep - if only men can live on bread alone and do away with the rest of the food pyramid.

So that was how I got on my quest of artisan bread baking, a mission to provide our daily bread while rescuing our grocery expense. I started on recipes in Cookinglight, which I discovered the best recipe for a substantial, eggy Challah that resembled the ones at Zingermann's. I experimented with a few others on the way, but I think the Cookinglight recipe is still our family's #1 favorite. Then I moved on to a classic, James Beard's "Beard on Bread" (I used to get confused with the title - is it "Beard on Beard" or "Bread on Bread"?). I think the recipes need to be updated (it was published in 1972), but Beard's unintimidating, pedagogical style helped me to overcome my "baker's block," and I plunged into experimenting with the baguette, the italian feather bread, and the legendary Parker House Rolls. The Parker House Rolls deserve their fame, but they're really fussy to make so I only baked it a few times. My "Beard" era boosted my confidence - I found myself valiantly got my hands on whatever bread recipes that came along my way: pizza doughs, chapatis, naan, pita bread, potato breads, etc. There were many successes, but also many discouraging feats that sent me back the local bakery for short stints. But what this time did for me was expanding my repertoire, and developing an understanding, and most of all, a love for bread making.

One of the recurring discouragement was the failure to produce the Paesano, the italian basic country round, which was the reason I started bread making. I've tried a ciabatta from Cookinglight, it was nice for toasting, but the crumbs were light and the glutin was not developed enough to make it substantial and chewy. We lived on that for a while, until last Christmas Matt bought me Rose Levy Beranbaum's authoritative Bread Bible. It proved that all my previous trial and error were not to waste, because Beranbaum's Bible is technical at best, with painstaking details and direction to follow. I approached the recipes with fear and trembling, making sure that I attended to the very hands-on and micro-managing instructions. Beranbaum's writing is so didatic and particular that it transcends the page into a voice whispering to your ear and an invisible instructor by your side, guiding your hand into every sift, knead, lift, fold. Yeah, it's a little eery and patronizing, but I have to admit that it was such guidance that helped me finally produce the very Paesano our family has been longing for for two and a half years. It has a flavorful golden crust(sometimes brown, depends on if I am paying attention...uh-oh, I feel that stern gaze from Rose), and firm, chewy crumbs seperated by big, beautiful air pockets. I think it's especially satisfying for me because of all the effort I put in for such a long time.

Apart from the Paesano (which is the Basic Country Loaf in the book), almost every recipe in the Bread Bible is a gem. Some of our favorites are the Apple Crumb Surprise, Rosemary Foccacia, the Ricotta Loaf, Levy's Rye, the Pumpernickel, and Beranbaum's version of the basic pizza dough. I have never baked from another pizza recipe ever since, and just like Rose has described in the introduction of this recipe, I have never tossed away a single fringe crust from a pizza because it is just so crunchy, chewy, and satisfying.

I guess this blog is really a tribute to Beranbaum's dedication to baking and my thankfulness of her to share her recipes. I almost exclusively bake from her book now (with the exceptions of Cookinglight's Challah and Beard's English Muffin Bread), and I'm really looking forward to working on her Cake Bible and Pastry Bible, whenever Matt gets a chance to tend to them on my Christmas gift wish list.