I am hoping that this is going to be a fun, informative road to go down. What I am going to attempt through these blogs is to capture the efforts made to get Jeff Renner's bread, named "The Best French Bread in Town" to San Diego and learn as I learn, bread and everything about it.
Just a little bit of history on Jeff. He was a stay-at-home-dad with a talent for making fantastic bread. He started at bake sales but people began to ask for them all the time. He realized he had the potential for an at-home business, went to the Farmer's Market and shortly had a mailing list of more than 200 individual customers. He picked up commercial accounts and sold his bread at various markets, which he still does today.
Chris and I are flying into Michigan on Wednesday to talk with him and if all goes well we will be flying home with a new recipe and the start of a new business. Cross you fingers!
I decided that I'd better get on the stick if I was to talk the talk with Jeff about his bread. I took a class from Kathleen Allenbach at the San Diego Artisan Bread School here in San Diego. It's a 6 hour class jam packed with hands on experience and the science of baking bread. It's the best chemistry class you'll ever take! When I came home with 4 yummy loaves of bread that I had made myself, everyone was duly impressed. Here is a picture of the group -
In about two weeks I will be taking my second class specifically for the art of making artisan breads. I can't wait!
So today I am going to take this new found knowledge and impart it onto my husband. We are making bread. Like Kathleen said, "you're first loaf will be about a $50 loaf of bread." She wasn't kidding! Going over to Bed, Bath & Beyond 3 weeks before Christmas on a Saturday is not the ideal time to go. But that is precisely what I did to get my supplies. Yesterday I came home loaded with pans, bowls, scrappers, electric scales, and all the rest. Last night I measured my amounts and made a Poolish and a Soaker. Wow, see how smart I already am!
Poolish - A type of preferment. Typically quite wet, an equal weight of water and flour with an extremely small amount of yeast made the night before with no salt.
Soaker - Seeds or grains soaked in liquid to soften, before adding them to the dough.
I will let you know how it goes today.......
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