This is the first loaf I have baked using flour from my new Grainmaker mill—and the last loaf I will bake in this kitchen that I have been posting from for almost two years. We are moving house this weekend and amongst the piles of packed boxes and chaos I thought it might be a fitting end to try and find some time to bake a loaf and upload a post about it.
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I have just returned home from a weeks trip in the New England tablelands. This region is south across the border into New South Wales and roughly six hours drive from Brisbane. Even though it has some of New South Wales most renowned national parks and world heritage areas I was travelling for my usual reasons ... bread.
Peering over my computer monitor I can see it is still raining. My computer lurks in the smallest room in our house with a single window that allows a narrow view through to another room and then another window before a tiny glimpse of the outside world finally emerges. My computer cave seems so removed from the country roads under expansive skies that I was travelling on the week before.
A new prospect is on the horizon.
This new prospect keeps me focused, keeps me pushing, keeps me mixing and baking.
At breakfast and dinner my starter is fed freshly milled flour still warm from its transition from grain to powder. Everyday I watch, smell and taste the starter and notice how temperature and different milling techniques play a role in its development. The biggest change I have ever noticed took place this week when I changed my milling practice.
For the first time in five months I baked bread at home and it made me very nervous.
It is an entirely different proposition to make a hand full of breads in a home oven as opposed to the rhythm and flow that working in large batches provides. My attention and perfectionist streak is focused on too few ... the dough is essentially the same (though not quite as rewarding) ... but the loading of a home oven is problematic and inefficient.
... the nicest dough in the world can be ruined by a lousy oven.
The weeks literally feel a blur ... I have lost track of when I last posted and although I frequently visit the site and marvel at people's bread I struggle to find time to post comments and answer questions.
We are still probably a month from opening the doors to the public as an eating space but this has not deterred the push to produce bread in the big blue oven ... that's right, the oven is now blue thanks to a fancy tiled make-over.
It feels so strange to stop for a minute and think back over the week ... It has been a blur of oven firings, dough mixing, baking and cleaning.
In some ways it has been a week of major milestones ... the FIRST bake!
... but now that I am test baking everyday in the oven it really feels down to business. I have entered into a relationship with this wood burning beast and I need to tame it.
I now often think of something that Chris Bianco said about woodfired ovens - he said they teach you about heat.
