Bread Geek

I recently checked out a spate of cookbooks from the library, one of which was this:





And I am pleased to announce, I have found my muse!

Out of all the bread bibles and recipes, whole-grain gurus and tips, this book combines the physical practicality of bread with the answers to all my questions behind it. The main question having been, for me, 'why is no one really telling me how to bridge the gap between sprouting/soaking and eating a sandwich?' I've been soaking beans and breakfast porridges and occasionally some muffins, but getting from that to an actual loaf of bread has felt impossible. Aside from some well-meaning, but ultimately unprofessional, advice in a few fringe books, I've been hunting fruitlessly for anything solid to work with. My first few attempts to get from here to there failed and I gave up.

But now, I'm all inspired again, like I was earlier in the year when I first read Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America. Even without the holy grail of sprouted flour, this cookbook gives me the ratios, techniques, and specifics to really feel like I'm going up to the next level.
I happened to be going out to the fabric store just a day or two after I started this book, and I bought a nice piece of natural linen to be a couche, and I baked from it today for the first time. Mmm, boy, I won't tell you how much of this quite-large loaf I've already eaten by myself this morning...