Bread Baking, Bread Breaking Part 2

Today I'm wrapping up my photos and comments from our weekend at Hains House, where Pat Hains hosts a Bed and Breakfast and teaches a monthly class in baking artisan bread. Tom was enrolled in the March class, along with two young women. They baked from 3:00 Friday till 3:00 Sunday, with time off to eat and sleep, so they had time to make lots of marvelous breads. You can find more about our memorable weekend here, in Part 1.

If you are going to bake artisan bread, you need the right equipment. A wood-fired oven is certainly an advantage, but not everyone will be able to have one. Fortunately Pat Hains does. And there's Skip, keeping the fire going.

Timers and tape measures, two essential tools. You want those pretzels to roll out to 21 inches, and you'd better mind the timer when it goes off. Pat stressed the importance of following the recipe. This is not the time to be creative! Don't estimate, don't guess. Use the listed amount of each ingredient and let the bread rise and bake at the stated time. (You may find that the recipe needs adjustments for your oven, but you'll never know if you don't follow the recipe.)

If you've got a scale, get it out; if not, you will want to have one on hand. It is the best way to accurately measure your ingredients and will make a difference in your final product.

Pat stretches the pizza dough, being careful not to tear it

Pizza veggies, roasted in the wood oven. Yum!

Pizza ingredients, waiting for the crusts so we could build our pizzas

My gluten-free pizza with vegan cheese, baking 

The best pizza I have ever had!

Focaccia ready to bake

Lovely!

A pretzel, scored and sprinkled and ready to bake

Now these are fine pretzels!

A pull-apart with gooey cinnamon and sugar on the bottom

The tired but happy class on Sunday afternoon

I was shopping in Stanwood one afternoon during the winter and went into Jungle Luv, a florist. I found this cute, tiny bicycle (just 2 inches high and 3 inches long) carrying a tiny French baguette. It made the perfect graduation gift for Tom! I asked the woman at the shop about the bread. She told me that when she was on a flight home from France she was served a snack -- a little bag of tiny baguettes! She collected all the snack bags she could and has found the perfect way to use them!

Happy graduation, Tom! Here's to a long and happy life of baking bread and breaking bread together!

Baking Bread, Breaking Bread Part 1

It's Monday and I'm back to my normal life after an amazing weekend. We drove to Olympia on Friday so that Tom could cash in on his Christmas gift -- a three-day artisan bread baking class at Hains House. Pat Hains, who operates the bed and breakfast, has studied bread baking in Germany and Italy and offers classes of her own one weekend a month. Finally, after a three-month wait, it was Tom's time to attend Pat's class.

We pulled in at 3:00 Friday afternoon. Jen was just getting out of her car. She'd flown in from Illinois earlier in the day, dropped her sister off in Seattle, and had found her way to Hains House. Last fall she helped build her own wood-fired brick oven and she wanted to perfect her skills as a baker so she'd be ready when the oven is delivered.

Jen, wearing goggles as she prepares to dip bagels in a lye solution before baking

A short time later, Julie arrived. As a birthday gift her husband had registered her for the class. He handed her a piece of paper and told her to drive from their Portland home to this address in Olympia and he'd join her later in the evening. He did tell her it was a class on baking bread, but that's about all she knew. I was impressed with her ability to go with the flow.

Julie, preparing her husband's pizza

Just the three students in the class -- Tom, Jen, and Julie. And then there was the instructor, Pat. I'd gotten to know Pat a bit over the phone, so opening her back door and stepping into her kitchen seemed like stopping by to visit a friend. That sense of being friends just grew stronger over the weekend. She showed us to our room and, while I settled in, Tom and the others went to work in Pat's classroom.

Pat's baking shoes

Pat was wearing her favorite shoes, the ones she's worn as she's worked in several bakeries in Europe.  She's laid back, welcoming, a put-you-at-ease kind of gal. The breads baked in class got incorporated into the meals. So did a lot of vegetables, whether they appeared on the wood-fired pizzas we had for dinner Friday or the tasty roasted vegetables we had for dinner Saturday which got  pureed and turned into fabulous soup for Sunday's lunch.  While we sat at dinner that first night her phone rang. "I'd better take this," she said. "It's an international call." She left the room and came back later, laughing. "It was the rug seller I met in Turkey years ago! He has friends coming to Seattle and he wondered if I or any of my friends would like to buy a rug!"

I spent a lot of time in the classroom and running to the outdoor oven, camera in hand. The afternoon light in the classroom is perfect, warming the room, enhancing the joy of learning new techniques, and allowing for some nice photos.

Just steps from the outside door is the oven that Pat got from a company in California. Pat's longtime friend, Skip, went with her to learn how to use the oven, and he tends the fire. He's always on the lookout for ways to serve in the kitchen, too. Not only did he grind and make my decaf coffee both mornings, he also roasted the beans for me!

Skip, tender of the fire and all-around great guy

For three days the house was filled with the aroma of fresh bread. We kind of lost track, but we think the class made twelve different kinds of bread over the weekend. The tables in the living room held nothing when we arrived but were both laden with varieties of beautiful breads by the time we left at 3:30 Sunday afternoon.

Tom brought home several bags of bread -- bagels, pretzels, focaccia, whole wheat bread, German pumpkin seed rolls, brioche, cranberry walnut chewy rolls. I thought if the traffic on I-5 came to a standstill we could jump out of the car and sell bread to other drivers, like I've seen kids do in the Philippines. We could have gone home rich! Instead, we stopped by to see my sister's family and my parents. Mom made up some soup and Tom sliced up some bread. This morning he's sharing a couple of loaves with his co-worers, and there's still lots left at home!

I didn't bake, but I threw caution to the wind and, with the aid of half a bottle of digestive enzymes, ate my fill of breads. Each bite was so rich and tasty, whether spread with some cream cheese or with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled on it. Today I am completely back to wheat-free, dairy-free eating but, oh, were these three days a delight.

You can tell a lot about a B&B host by reading the guest book. What I learned about Pat simply confirmed what we discovered as we spent the weekend with her. She takes you as you are. She loves you and serves you. Her heart for her family and friends is deep. She's a great teacher. Once she's in your life, she's there to stay. And it's all about bread. Of  course I mean the process of making a quality product but it's a lot more than that.

It's about the joy of sharing bread with others, the process of making a place around your table for fellowship. We were there to learn about baking bread. Pat took it a step further by sharing her gift of breaking bread.

Back to the Bread Board

In the early days of our marriage we made a lot of bread, yeast bread that involves you up to your elbows.  It was all new to me (I'd never worked with yeast before) but Tom was a seasoned baker.  He'd experimented with it over the years so much that he had perfected his technique and had tweaked several recipes. As our family grew, we moved to a bread machine, preparing the ingredients in the evening and being roused from sleep by the aroma of fresh bread. A little less work and still as much joy.

And then we learned that three of the four of us have food issues and could no longer eat wheat.

We gave away the bread machine and started working with alternative grains. Our early attempts at feeding the family with the ingredients remaining on our "legal" list proved to be quite a challenge. Over the years new things were found that caused trouble for one or another family member, with the occasional lifting of the restriction on other items. We ended up with some great muffin recipes, but never had much success making bread. Until lately, that is.

After 11 years of store-bought bread we are moving back into the bread business. We're still in the experimental stages, but it does look promising!

With the help of a couple of books by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois from Artisan Bread in Five, we have found a simple and fun way to provide our family with fresh, home-baked bread.

This book includes a section on gluten-free bread.

The bread dough is mixed up and stored in a 7-quart container and requires no kneading. The system is quite similar with either gluten- or gluten-free flours, with the gluten-free being a bit more fussy.  Here we are, making up a recipe of Gluten-Free Crusty Boule. You mix it together and leave it on the counter for a couple of hours while it rises.  You can bake it the same day or leave it in the fridge for two or three days for later use.  This batch makes enough for two round loaves. We've also used it for pizza crust and it turned out mighty fine!

We use a Danish dough whisk to mix the ingredients.

Because of the consistency of the gluten-free dough,
it is important to smooth the top of the bread
before you let it rise.

Forming the loaf

This pizza paddle makes it easy to slide the bread onto the baking stone,
which has been heating in the oven.

Taking the gluten-free loaf out of the oven

Aahhh!

No more waiting -- time to try it out!

Tom's loaf, made with wheat flour, has a more traditional texture
and taste than the gluten-free bread.