First bread of 2018

While in my parents’ place I baked many pompes a l’huile for Christmas, but I didn’t bake any bread. There are a few nice organic bread shops and bakeries around. But now that we are back to Isumi, it was mandatory to bake some bread. I started this year with a very simple bread: rye and whole wheat, with a handful of flaxseeds. And since the house is rather cold, I kept the bread all night in the room with us for it to rise, and only baked it much later. It has risen very slowly but the result was a very soft yet dense bread. With jam, honey, butter, or whatever, it’s delicious for breakfast. And it goes together with the book I am reading about Roland Feuillas, a guy who has been working for the last 12 years in making bread with traditional wheats grown traditionaly too. This reading has revived in me this idea that I should grow my own sourdough, but I still don’t know how to manage the trips between Isumi and Tokyo every weekends, and the longer one abroad  and to keep it alive properly… If you have some experience in raising sourdough I’ll be happy to learn from you!!!

Last bread of the year?

The last week in Japan for this year is just starting. As usual before traveling, the last week is a marathon: squeeze in all the appointments, meetings that require me to be physically here, prepare for packing, and here on top, prepare for Xmas presents, since we’ll follow directly with a visit to our family and friends in France. I’m quite excited to go to Florence, first because I’ve never been there yet, and A. will show me around, there will be cooking opportunities with sone local products; second because these five days there are meant for me to work on a book (not an scientific one, neither a cookbook…). A very new activity, something I don’t know where to start and how to organize myself, it is very challenging for me… I write this book with a philosopher who is used to that so that will probably help a bit… we’ll see. That said, it means that I have less time in the morning to prepare pancakes… so yesterday I baked a big black bread that would be our breakfast for the next three days. I used 1/3 of black wheat flour and 2/3 of whole wheat flour for it. It is very nutritious and tasty. And to slice it more easily and evenly, I baked it in a rectangular bread mold, something that makes it resemble pumpernickel. Simple and delicious. Have a great week!!

Baking bread

I haven’t posted any bread recipe recently but that doesn’t mean I haven’t baked any! I have baked a lit of fougasses this summer for our visiting friends. Of course for breakfast I have cooked more pancakes than ever, but bread is still one of my favorite. All warm, just out of the oven, the smells that mixes with A. freshly ground coffee is that of perfect Sunday mornings. After almost 3 years of making bread regularly now I rarely use my recipe book anymore, unless I am doing something fancy, and I just mix my various flours and seeds… in different combinations that all end up being perfectly delicious. Recently I bought a lot of organic whole wheat flour and some local spelt, buckwheat… flours so I’m enjoying making some mixes, to obtain a rich dark bread that suits very well jam, honey, butter, cheese and ham. Adding seeds: flax, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame; nuts or bran: oat or wheat add a lot of texture to the bread and is also very nice. This time I made a very simple 80% whole wheat-20% spelt and it was really delicious. For the rest of the recipe details please check that post, or look for “bread” in the search tool. You can also click on “bread” in the list of tags just below.

New desktop favorite

I try to play tennis at least twice a week during lunch break, which means then that I need a quick, energetic and easy-to-eat-while-working lunch. So I have developed new sandwiches slightly faster to make than my usual desktop lunches (here and there). Instead of the big slice of bread I now use the bread I was using this summer more often: whole wheat small slices that when cut in two make a perfect size to handle and 3-4 bite. I have moved away from cream cheese for cottage cheese more often even in winter for a good dose of proteins, and in the middle I add whatever I find: mushrooms are still a good choice that goes well with the rest, tomatoes too but it’s not really the top season for that. I just tried cucumber and rucolla, plus a few pumpkin seeds and it was really delicious. And I’m sure I will find other things to try that takes only 3min to prepare. What’s your favorite lunch when short on time?

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