Slow-Rise Bread

I've been baking bread for many years. It has been tasty, but lately I've been dissatisfied with the bread's texture. It crumbles, which is especially irksome when eating a sandwich. Then, on a whim, I decided to make an artisan bread from a recipe in the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.

The recipe starts with an overnight sponge. The ingredients are a cup of water, 1/4 teaspoon yeast, and two cups of unbleached white flour, stirred together. Sometimes I use one cup of unbleached and one cup of whole wheat flour, but always I use our wonderful Kansas flour, Hudson Cream. Overnight this mixture is transformed.

To this bubbling slurry I add salt, 1/2 teaspoon more yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup water, and two cups of whole wheat flour. (King Arthur recipe calls for all white flour, but what do they know?) Then I knead for three minutes in the mixer fitted with its dough hook. I finish the kneading on my pastry cloth, form the dough into a ball, and plop it into a big oiled bowl to rise.

After the dough rises, which happens pretty fast, I shape it into a long loaf and place the loaf on a cookie sheet scattered with cornmeal. The cornmeal keeps the loaf from sticking to the pan. After the loaf nearly doubles bake it at 410 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan and set it on a rack to cool.

Sure, it's pretty, but the best part is that the texture is firm, making a sturdy sandwich. It also makes wonderful toast. What a thrill it is to learn a new skill in the twilight of life.

I'm A Nut

Amazon.com sent me an e-mail with a comment someone made on a comment I made, but don't remember making. It had to do with King Arthur flour. Apparently I had said I wouldn't buy flour that had to be shipped halfway across the country when perfectly good flour is milled right here in Kansas. The commentator labeled me a locavore radical and essentially called me a nut.

Well, I guess I am. I am devoted to Hudson Cream flour, milled in Stafford County, Kansas. I use both Hudson cream unbleached flour and whole wheat flour. The whole wheat is more finely milled than King Arthur's, and makes a better whole wheat loaf.

To celebrate my nuttiness today, I made bread.

I used one cup of Hudson Cream unbleached flour and eight cups of Hudson Cream whole wheat. That required opening a new bag of unbleached.

After two rises of the dough, I made up the loaves using the ancient Way Right scale to weigh, and balance the weight of, each loaf.

Forty-five minutes later they were in the oven, perfuming the house with good old Kansas wheat.

I'm sticking to my guns. Remember, King Arthur was a cuckold.