“Customers bring life to baking.
Every winter Klimentini’s brother sent her loaves of the family’s Christmas bread from Greece. For the past two years it had arrived late and broken up as if the Customs suspected the strong spices of masking something more sinister. Could I recreate it for her?
The hand-written recipe started off OK using kilos and grams, but then veered off to unconventional and vague measurements: 24 coffee cups olive oil; 3 glasses orange juice; 1 glass brandy. Not to mention the small problem of converting a recipe with no water to natural leavening.
Year 1 was not bad. Year 2, when I moved a little more away from the original, was excellent. This year the brother came over from Greece and, to my relief, gave it his seal of approval.”
The PArtisan Baker 