Flour Prints

This morning I noticed that when baking bread it is very evident where you have been and what you have been touching; the trail of flour "prints" around the kitchen is very revealing...

As I am baking another batch of bread this morning and as I am cleaning up after myself, God revealed to me how my flour "prints" are very representative of my journey through life and the decisions that I make along the way.

Just like the flour trail around my kitchen, the impact that I have on those around me is directly correlated to the decisions I make and the path that I choose to follow. However, unlike the flour "prints" in my kitchen, my "prints" on those around me are not always very evident, at least not to me...

Today was a good reminder for me to carefully consider my actions and reactions, my thoughts and my dreams; because even if I don't always see my trail of flour "prints" in life, God does...

The proper care and storage of bread

The third "official" batch has been baked so I thought I would share some tips on the proper care and storage my bread.

It is said that the optimum time to eat fresh bread is at the moment that its center cools down to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it is hard to dismiss the fact there is something romantic about eating warm bread just out of the oven so that it melts the butter and tastes comforting in the mouth. In any case, the harsh reality is that the “freshness” clock starts ticking when the bread comes out of the oven…

The bâtards that I bake are made with only four ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast; the simple truth is that I don’t use any preservatives. The good thing about this is that the bread is healthier, more natural, and better tasting; the bad thing about this is that we are unable to slow the progress of the “freshness” clock. Well, there are a couple of things that we can do…

• Eat your bâtard on the same day that it is baked. This directly conflicts with the “buy enough for a month” philosophy popularized by Costco, but if you eat it you won’t have to worry about storing it.
• If you want to preserve the crustiness of the bâtard, you should store it in paper. This helps, but it will still become stale within a day or so.
• If you want to preserve the bâtard for more than a day, “cater wrap” it in plastic wrap. This means that you wrap the loaf in plastic wrap completely in both directions to prevent any air from getting to it. Then, either freeze or place it in a cool, dark place. Pull the loaf from the freezer at least 2 hours before you need to use it. Do not try to accelerate the thawing by putting it into the oven or microwave because this will only dry it out. To restore a crackly crust to the bread, put it in a 450 F oven for 2 minutes.

Another little trick to keep your bread as fresh as possible as you are enjoying it during the day is to place the bread "face" down on a cutting board; this will keep the exposed bread fresher and softer.

I should also mention a couple of things that you should never do:

• Do not store bread in the refrigerator. This dries out the bread, even if it is sealed in plastic.
• Do not store the bâtard in plastic bags or in plastic wrap unless you plan to re-crisp the crust in the oven.
• Do not store warm bread in plastic bags or plastic wrap. Please wait until it has completely cooled down.

Please realize that this only applies to taking care of my lean (unenriched) bread; storing enriched breads is a completely different game...

A special thanks to everyone who is helping out with our fundraiser for Emily's and Kelly's upcoming mission trip to Costa Rica; I really hope that you are enjoying the bread!

First batch of fundraiser bread

Well, the first "official" batch of fundraiser bread has been baked and packaged and is being delivered as I type this.

The day started off at 4:00 AM and today's baking went pretty much as planned although I have to say that baking in volume is a bit more challenging that baking a couple of loaves for our own use; I learned a couple of good lessons today.

Thanks again to everyone who is participating in Emily's and Kelly's Costa Rica mission fundraiser. We truly appreciate whatever you can donate and we hope that you really enjoy the bread.

Now I am off to work...

The story of Cor's daily bread

“Acorns were good enough until bread was invented.”
- Decimus Junius Juvenalis, A.D. 125

I have never eaten a single acorn in my life, but I believe that I would prefer a piece of bread over acorns any day. Well, maybe that isn’t completely true…

You might know that I was born and raised in Holland and that I lived there until my family emigrated to the U.S. when I was thirteen years old. While Holland isn’t as well known for its breads as France is, it was there that I was first exposed to quality breads.

As I am getting older some memories seem to slowly fade away, but my memories of the local village’s electric bread cart showing up on Brahmsstraat on a Saturday morning are as clear as when I was a twelve year old boy. The smells of the freshly baked bread would direct me to the cart where I was rewarded with artisan creations that pleased the eyes as well as the palette in exchange for a couple of “kwartjes” (quarters).

Just as vivid is the memory of my very first taste of “American” bread during the summer of 1979. We had just arrived in California and we were staying with some friends of my mother and father; I walked into the kitchen, picked up a slice of Wonder bread and took a big bite…

“My kingdom for an acorn!!!”

It was on that fateful day that my quest for decent bread began. Please note that my quest was not for the great bread that I had in a small village in Luxemburg when I was on summer vacation with my family in 1975; I just wanted something halfway decent that would not make me gag.

Over the years my quest has given my wife a couple of gray hairs; I would always ask her to buy some “good” bread, but I could never give her the specific details of where to purchase that illusive “good” bread; I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been.

“If the bread won’t come to Cor, Cor must make the bread…”

In late December of 2009 Kelly and I were strolling through the local Barnes and Noble bookstore when I noticed a book with a wonderful picture of bread that promised me that I could make my own artisan bread in about five minutes. I picked up the book in disbelief, started reading it, bought it, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“What now?”

Over the last three months I have been refining my dough formula and I have been slowly improving my shaping and baking skills. Right now I am having a great time baking bâtards for my friends and family using a high hydration (75%) formula that I make using a cold fermentation process without the use of any traditional kneading. I really like the overnight cold fermentation approach because it significantly slows down the normal fermentation process, thereby allowing the enzymes more of a chance to do their job of releasing the full flavor from the flour.

In case you don't know, bâtards are torpedo-shaped loafs that are about 12 inches in length; mine weigh about 10 ounces and have a well-developed crust. You can see two of my bâtards in the glass vase in the picture at the top of this blog.

My bâtards are made with only four simple ingredients:

• Flour
• Water
• Salt
• Yeast

In case that you are wondering, I only use flour milled from hard red winter wheat that has never been bleached or bromated.

Here is a picture of one of my bâtards with a nice open airy crumb:


I hope that you like what you have read and that I will have a chance to share some of my bread with you very soon; you can leave the acorns on the oak trees...