The Staff of Life
It is widely accepted that bread is the staff of life, as can be seen in the staple diet of many countries. Sayings about bread abound, and among them we find not only “Bread is the staff of life” but also “Man cannot live by bread alone.” I tend to favour “A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou beside me” for reasons that many readers will identify with.
Just back from a short break in my adoptive home of Le Havre, France, my dear friends Gilbert and Michèle have presented me with their usual parting gift of a quadruple loaf of country bread from the best bakery in the neighbourhood.
Measuring in at a massive 30 inches/76 cm in length, this loaf is everything bread should be: big, brown and beautiful. It is “well done” to a delightful nutty brown and has a thick, crisp crust with those fabulous cuts in the top. It has been dusted with flour before baking to give it that rustic look.
Biting into it is a sensuous affair which requires a bit of strength and intent to get through that gorgeous thick crust; a bit of ripping and tearing with the teeth does the trick. This effort yields a delightful reward in the form of tasty, soft and pillowy “mie” or crumb inside. It’s my husband’s absolute favourite bread and it is the standard against which each and every loaf I make in my Thermomix is measured.
This is our favourite bread; why not go back to the top of this page and click on “Comments” and tell me about your favourite bread? I’d love to hear from you!
Bon appétit!
I’m a bread addict too, and that monstrous loaf of yours looks amazing!! I think my favourite homemade bread is my wholegrain spelt artisan bread – lovely and chewy and tasty, especially hot out of the oven!! It never lasts long though! 🙂
Sounds yummy, Leslie! I think the one comment that I hear the most when talking to people about Thermomix is one like yours: “I love making things by hand too much to use a machine.” I also love the great feeling you get from hand baking, but my poor hands are getting too achy to knead bread anymore so I’m delighted to let my Thermomix do it for me! Send me a photo of your next loaf of Challah and I’ll post it here!!
My favorite bread to make is potato bread, home made, from scratch! I also adore making home made Challah! In reality, it’s the mixing and kneading and waiting for that delicious bread to rise that I love the most! Although it’s quicker, I just can’t bring myself to make bread with a bread machine or a mixer!!
“Late Bake?” What a superb idea to ensure customers get the freshest loaf if that’s the way they like it! And yes, San Francisco Sour Dough is the real deal. I’ll have to whizz up a sourdough starter in my Thermomix and make a few loaves. You’re right, Mary Ellen, there’s nothing like that sour taste in bread. Thanks for reading my blog, and I look forward to a bread post on yours!
My favorite bread? San Francisco sourdough. Ahhhhh… Can’t get it here, although some supermarkets have fairly recently added sourdoughs to their lines of artisanal breads, which makes them expensive. They’re reasonable substitutes when you can’t get the real thing, but they never taste as sour, and they aren’t baked and delivery multiple times a day; when we lived in the Bay Area we used to run to the grocery before dinner and look for the loaves in paper sleeves labelled “Late Bake” to get the freshest.
Also, the sourdough here tends to be flavored. A few years ago I was amazed (and overjoyed, actually) to find a baker’s stall at a farmer’s market with a sign listing San Francisco-style sourdough as one of the offerings. Yeah, said the baker, I’ve actually got an American baker who works for me, and he makes it. Uh-huh. It had jalapeno peppers in it, and the baker was from Boston. SUpermarket sourdoughs are often fancied up too much, too — I do not want potato-rosemary sourdough that doesn’t taste sour, I want the real deal!
Clearly I ought to blog about this myself!! Next time I hit the farmer’s market, maybe I’ll do that.
Thanks for the bread-y post, the loaf looks amazing!