The Bread Sings Again: Tartine Style

One of the indications of bread perfection is "the song of the bread" or the bread crust crackling as it hits the cold air coming out of the oven. I have only achieved this once, when my Pain de Campagne was slightly over-proofed during the first fermentation. Once again, somehow, I slightly over-proofed a loaf of Tartine Country Bread during the initial rising period. The bread sang. It was wonderful. It was light and fluffy and tasted amazing. It did not have the irregular crumb that usually characterizes Tartine loaves (as the bulk fermentation was too long), but it's pretty good.

Crust

Crumb

I also made a version of what I have begun to call my "breakfast bread" which is the 70% Whole Wheat Tartine bread with flax seeds and steel-cut oats.

Over-proofed dough.

I hope the whole wheat one is decent.

Paleontology Geek: Hominin Evolution

In some form, all mammals require exogamous (literally, from the Greek, marriage-outside) mating patterns. Apparently, most mammals send the males to mate outside the local group, and the group is continued by females. For chimpanzees and early hominins, this functioned the opposite way. According to chemical composites in the teeth that scientists analyzed, all the males in the area were local while at least half the female skeletons apparently came from father afield. The article on australopithecines I read came from the New York Times.

Note: I thought originally that hominin was a typo for hominid. Apparently hominid has been expanded as a wider definition and hominin now refers to human ancestors. For reference, see this article from the Australian Museam.

One of Those Days...

It's just been one of those days where nothing goes as planned. It seems to be some kind of math curse. I studied for the exam for the whole weekend. I made a study guide and did practice problems of each of the ypes that my professor enumerated were on the exam. Unfortunately, I was deceived. At least three of of the 13 questions on the exam were of a sort I had never seen. It was one of those days.

I think I will go back over the math. I have books that will take me up through multivariable calculus. It may be harder to teach myself, but at least I will know when I know the information and I cannot get blindsided by an exam that makes no sense. Ultimately, I am learning for my own sake anyway, so there is little downside to teaching myself.

I had a lovely dinner of samosa's my mother bought. I will resume bread baking tomorrow...

Wine Snob: Alemos Argentinian Malbec

During spring break, a friend of mine came to stay with us for a few days. Her family are old friends, and they nicely sent some wine to the family as a thank you gift (although, of course, seeing an old friend was a gift in itself). We opened the first one at dinner tonight. It was a 20087 Alemos Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina.

I liked the wine quite a bit. The color was ruby tinged with purple. Overall, the wine was jammy and on the heavy side of the medium body. The flavor was primarily of blackberries and raspberries with a sprinkling of sel gris and a pinch of white pepper in the middle. It was round with a fairly quick finish. I really enjoyed it.

A pictures is forthcoming...

General Thoughts...

I'm taking my math final on Tuesday and I just finished up my latest SAT prep class so I will not resume posting in depth for a few days. I am spending my time writing a study guide for the class.

I took the leftover pancake batter from the other day and made apple and cheese crepes for dinner and dark chocolate crepes for dessert. They were great, except I think that next time I will simply used the sourdough for crepes instead of adding the baking soda. Also, I noticed that the slight sour flavor of the crepes requires something with a strong flavor inside-- e.g. the crepes with sharp cheddar and apples were better than those with brie and apples. I forgot to take a photo, but this was the first time I ever made crepes (Servia makes great ones) so they were perhaps not as photogenic as another attempt might be.

Math: An Experiment in Relearning

Retaking calculus after six years has proved an odd experience. Concepts that came to me so easily back in high school are much more difficult now. On the other hand, those concepts that I did not learn then or that I did not understand fully come much more easily. I am spending the next four days studying for my final. I am using my old technique of creating a comprehensive study guide.

Concerning math, I listened to a pretty cool podcast from In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg which discusses imaginary numbers. Enjoy.

Croissants!

My Little Croissant!

After 4 days of labor (I slowed down the process so I did not have to commit as much time each day) I have finally achieved croissants! And the best part is that they're great! Light and fluffy on the inside and amber-colored and flaky on the outside: just like they are supposed to be.

The first time I made croissants, they peeled off layer by layer, but they were not fluffy and light in the same way. Cerinthus said "they're not bad, but they're not croissants." Even Cerinthus would have to admit that these are croissants. Sure, they don't have the perfect honeycomb crumb, but they still look and taste as ordered:

Croissants

Light and Fluffy Interior

Crumb-- a better photo

I posted the croissant recipe here. This is the halfed recipe from Tartine Bread.

Sourdough Pancakes: with or without baking soda

I took the recipe from King Arthur Flour and modified it. Here is what I did:

Pancakes with Baking Soda

Overnight sponge

• 1 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cups 2% Milk + lemon juice
• 0.66 cup sourdough starter, straight from the refrigerator (not fed)
• 1/3 cup of hydrated rolled oats

Waffle or pancake batter

• all of the overnight sponge
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 egg yoke
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• [0.5 tsp baking soda] optional
• [1 tsp vanilla] optional

The night before eating the pancakes, made the sponge. First distribute the sourdough starter into the milk and then add the flour and sugar. Mix until a batter forms and leave on the counter overnight, covered with plastic wrap or similar. I made the mistake of putting it in the refrigerator, which meant that I ended up having pancakes for lunch instead of breakfast because it was not bubbly and ready.

Sourdough Mixture

The next morning beat the egg whites until stiff and set them aside. Mix together the egg yoke, the vanilla, the salt, and the oil. Then mix it into the sponge. Fold the mixture gently into the egg whites. If lighter pancakes are desired, mix in the baking soda.

The pancakes are pretty tasty. I had them with syrup. About 1/4 of the mixture or less made a full lunch for Servia and I, so this recipe is huge. I saved the rest of it for further experimentation. More thoughts to come.

As a preview, tomorrow I bake these lovely croissants. I think I may have made some serious mistakes, so wish me luck. But they look pretty cute!

Mini Tartine Croissants

More tomorrow...