Miracle Bread

AKA 4 Baguettes.

You might well ask why, if you’re retired, you have to draw a line through the calendar and call it a holiday when you’re not even planning on going anywhere. If you do ask you’re obviously not retired. The need arose and a line was drawn through this very week.

Miracle No 1: after two months of absolutely shite weather, the forecasters have predicted sun for the whole of this week. We’ve got as far as Tuesday in wall-to-wall sunshine and no change in the forecast.

My feeling was, I want to have a break from lots of time in the kitchen and from baking bread. Didn’t refresh my starter Sunday night. Monday morning supplies looked a bit skimpy and what should have been obvious became so. If I don’t bake, there is no bread.

So I looked at my starter and thought it appeared a little less flat than I expected. If I knocked up a couple of baguettes and they came out looking a bit sad it would be neither here nor there.

Mixed dough for four baguettes, just Shiptons No 4 + about 10% bran. Set it to ferment for four hours with the occasional stretch and fold.

But it was Sue’s turn for creating something new and a bit complicated in the kitchen department and I didn’t want to get in her way. So I dug out my rarely used long, 1K basket and reduced my intended 4 baguettes to a single loaf. Was in the basket and tucked out of the way by 2.00 p.m. – should have been ready for the oven about 5.30 p.m.

Sue presented this fabulous and filling Greek lunch, and we lolled around in the unaccustomed sunshine all afternoon. It was about 8.00 p.m. as we were coming in from the garden when a little life kicked in to the memory department. 6 hours proving at about 25C …

At least Picos heat up pretty quickly and unexpectedly the dough came out of the basket like a dream. But you have to act fast with overproved doughs so I reached for the serrated tomato knife I use for slashing.

If you look at the photo, the knife is by the little Le Creuset casserole (the one I use to take the piss out of dutch oven bakers) on the high shelf. The Le Creuset is full of wheat grain that I used to use to decorate certain loaves and should have been binned years ago. Well the casserole came out with the knife and crashed down to the work surface knocking down the famous Toothie meat dish, the lump of slate that keeps Toothie in place jumped up in the air and landed on the dish and the whole was covered with wheat grain.

Miracle No 2: Toothie survived without a scratch or chip and the dough was unscathed.

Miracle No. 3: 45 minutes later the bread emerged from the oven looking pretty perfect.

As Lonnie Donegan sang “This story ain’t got no morals …”