Monday Mix 6/12/23
Peeled apart
Happy Mondays, everybody! Hope you had a peaceful weekend. I spent part of mine messing around with some photographs for my book. My plan has been to document the loaves as I develop them so that I don’t have to do a massive photoshoot at the end of the process, but I need to work out a consistent aesthetic before I do so. I also have the (possibly deluded) plan to shoot many of the images on film. Before I was thrust into this full-time bread thing a few years ago, I had another equally passionate hobby in photography, but I have had almost no time to devote to it.
Back then my subject was mostly people, not food, but right now I have little time to make portraits, so instead using the book images as a place to make art. Yesterday I made some test images using my ride-or-die camera, a Mamiya RZ67, on color film and peel-apart instant film (as in the top image). The latter is one of my favorite media, one that hasn’t been made since 2018, meaning every shot I make is one closer to the last I will ever shoot. I have a stash of peel-apart in my fridge, but it won’t keep forever, so I’ve decided this book is as good a use for it as any other.
What did everyone else get up to this weekend?
—Andrew
That peel-apart instant film image looks EXTREMELY cool. This weekend I baked a loaf of bread I've baked dozens of times (Ken Forkish's standard loaf, from Evolutions in Bread) and uh, I guess I need reading glasses more than I thought I did, because I used 580 grams instead of 380, and then spent some time trying to fix it, and it was a good exercise is bread-baking intuition (trying to fix it) but the resulting loaf was pretty mediocre.
Also, every time I see anything about Night Moves Bread I get so excited. Her new bakery is a 10-minute walk from my house and I am super excited about it. Every time I walk by with my dog I press my face against the window.
Baked. A lot. A loaf of yeast-based rye bread that turned out well. I live in a rye bread desert. A dozen amazing commercial bakeries around the Bay Area and not a loaf of European style rye to be had. Acme (Steve Sullivan) makes a good NY rye but our local shops don’t carry it any more.
Since I hauled out the yeast & flours for bread, might as well make pizza dough, so 1 batch split between rye & whole wheat. A nice last-minute pizza last night: mix up a base of farmer’s/ricotta/fromage blanc + crème fraîche + parm, seasoned with nutmeg, black pepper & maras chile. Sautéed shallots & mushrooms, salted capers (soaked & drained); finish with fresh thyme, parm, pine nuts & parsley.
Tried out Deb Perelman’s Rhubarb Snacking Cake and, oh boy, that’s a winner! Another one is from her new book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, a Blueberry Pancake Cobbler. I’ll never go back to biscuity topping again! And weirdly, it really does taste like pancakes with blueberry sauce!
And... a kouign amman. Not the precious little individual ones so rampant these days, but a multi-serve 9” version like I had in France. This was going swimmingly and excitement was at pitch fever. My last turn before shaping and baking, and oh my! A dog emergency. As in, “Hey the dog got into the compost and is dragging chicken bones all over the place!” Damn. Ok. You know what comes next, right? Yup. Threw the dough in the fridge. Twenty minutes later, it’s a ragged mass of weeping, torn goo. Ack. Scooped it into the tin and baked it off anyway. While still delicious, it loses all layers and flakes and becomes more bready. I’ll use it as a base for a raspberry bread pudding later this week.