Pane Pugliese

My adventures with yeast continued this weekend, when I attempted a much more complex recipe than usual. Pane Pugliese is a simple, rustic bread, but some effort is required to achieve the seemingly nonchalant result.

First, this is a sponge based bread. This sponge, known as biga, worked overnight (unlike previous 1 hour sponges I’ve used), which caused the water, flour and yeast mixture to triple in size and look all bubbly and active. So, start the biga around 10pm, mix the dough together around noon the next day, and after all is said and done you will have excellent fresh bread for dinner!

I used the Kitchenaide mixer instead of the bread machine (another first) to knead the dough. Finally, after multiple rise cycles stretching over 3 hours (2-3 times longer than normal), the bread was shaped and allowed to rise one last time. It was then soaked with water from are a squirt bottle right before baking in a very hot, 450 degree oven.

The water contributed to a loaf that had the crunchiest crust I’ve ever baked. The bread also had excellent flavor; the depth and complexity resulted from using the biga and the long, slow, multiple rise cycles. Pretty amazing results considering the only ingredients were flour, water, salt, and yeast!

Postscript: the bread didn’t age well, and was dry and chewy the day after it was baked. Oh, but the excellent toast it made; in some ways better than it was the day it was baked! (Sorry, all you Atkins advocates

I got this in the mail recently and it seemed worth passing along.

The 9/11 Commission Hearings are available right now for free at http://www.audible.com/911hearings. These important audio documents represent yet another way Audible keeps you informed of the important events shaping our time.

You’ll hear Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, …

A reflection on things I learned today:

The pessimist is one who says “Things couldn’t possibly be worse,” the optimist says, “Sure they can.” — the daily irrelevant

The games haven’t changed since the 1980’s, but the delivery mechanism is pure 21st century. Zork, (and Zork II & III) are now playable using an AIM compatible client. In addition, many other Infocom adventure games are available, including Planetfall and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. You can even save …

As usual, one thing led to another, and I ended up discovering a delightful online art museum, known simply as the webmuseum. It turns out they are hosted as one of many specialized sites that together comprise ibiblio, an organization that seeks to be “the public’s library and digital archive”. Based on …

Hilarious link from Farber’s Interesting People list:

It seems some of the Brits are rather amused at the goings on recently at the FCC. One of the BBC channels has been running a very, very funny R rated advert. Channel Four International (C4i) asked a number of US and UK film and TV stars what the …