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...