Not cheesy bread, cheese bread!

One of a number of nice things about having children is that they do wonders to keep us from getting stuck in a rut. Even though the Daughter Person is "grown up," married, with her own house, she's managed to nudge us out of our bread-baking rut.

For about a year now we've been baking the same basic loaf of artisan sourdough bread, plain or with one of two options for "filler," raisins and dried cherries or white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. For her birthday this week, the Daughter Person requested "cheese bread," bread baked with shredded or grated cheese in it, in this case sharp, white, Wisconsin cheddar.

our typical artisan sourdough

Photo by J. Harrington

Artisan sourdough bread being what it is, the dough for the cheese bread involves slightly different proportions (it's more hydrated) and is made and proofed differently than the sourdough bread we normally bake. We're going to try it. The dough is made, it's been through its first proof, now it's in the refrigerator for an overnight second proof. Tomorrow it goes into an oven that's hotter than we usually use. Wish us luck. There's not enough time to redo it from scratch before this year's birthday party. It would have been nice if we had shown the initiative to try out this or a similar recipe before the show down, but that probably wouldn't have been us. For any western fans, did The Magnificent Seven have a dress rehearsal before the bad guys rode into the village?

The book we're using was a Christmas present last year. It's Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. There are a number of interesting, attractive and helpful web sites on the ins and outs of artisan sourdough bread. The link in this paragraph goes to the site that helped us discover Emilie's book. We're becoming more and more attracted by the physical presence required to make and bake artisan bread. For someone who did poorly in chemistry lab in college many years ago, baking bread is a new and rewarding experience.

some of our favorite Christmas cookies

Photo by J. Harrington

One of the reasons we're writing about bread today is because we've been neglecting our cookie baking (Daughter Person spoils us by baking our favorites) and today is National Cookie Day. We don't want to lose our honorary Cookie Monster membership by neglecting to acknowledge that and honor it properly. The Better Half and the Daughter Person each do an awesome job of baking Christmas cookies, but December 4 is a little early for that.

Bread

By Richard Levine

Each night, in a space he’d make 

between waking and purpose, 

my grandfather donned his one 

suit, in our still dark house, and drove 

through Brooklyn’s deserted streets 

following trolley tracks to the bakery.

There he’d change into white 

linen work clothes and cap, 

and in the absence of women, 

his hands were both loving, well 

into dawn and throughout the day— 

kneading, rolling out, shaping

each astonishing moment 

of yeasty predictability 

in that windowless world lit 

by slightly swaying naked bulbs, 

where the shadows staggered, woozy 

with the aromatic warmth of the work.

Then, the suit and drive, again. 

At our table, graced by a loaf 

that steamed when we sliced it, 

softened the butter and leavened 

the very air we’d breathe,

he’d count us blessed.

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