Last night I made rustic bread. This is the same recipe I’ve been tweaking and working on for the past year. Towards the end of the life of the old oven, those breads came out pale and pillowy soft, which made my cup runneth over with WTF exclamations and confusion. Now I have empirical evidence that the old oven wasn’t baking as hot. Witness the bread from last night.
The crust is a deep caramel brown, and the bubbles formed in the first two minutes. I know because I watched it all happen through the glass. Funny, a 60-year old oven has a better and more clear view through the glass than the modern oven. My baking time dropped about ten minutes, and the water was almost completely steamed out of the pan. I’m really excited to start doing more breads in this oven, to see what real heat can do. If I crank this thing up to broil, I’ll probably be able to do quick ciabatta and pizza crusts. I’ll take some more pics of the crumb tonight when I get to open it up.
Baby Harbat this morning was in a fabulous mood, giving hugs to everything in sight. Her hugs are accompanied by a prim back pat, and all she needs to do now is learn to say, “There there.” Here she is this morning fussing with the exercise ball and showing off her turbo-cute blue dress. It’s very hard to leave in the mornings when she is standing at the door and waving bye.
Writer, architect, father, husband.
Okay, so I didn't take follow-up pictures of the inside of this bread. Sue me! It looks exactly like the bread from the 8-24-09 post: tight crumb with no massive holes. Wah wah…