Packing for a visit to family
Maybe this belongs in the "You know you're a bread baker when ..." topic.
I'm going to visit my younger son and his family next week. I haven't started packing, but I have the breads baked.
This is basically my San Joaquin Sourdough but made with the Gérard Rubaud flour mix. I tasted this loaf's mate yesterday (as in 4 slices). The truth is, Rubaud's flour mix is better when baked using Rubaud's formula and methods, and the San Joaquin Sourdough is better using my usual AP with 10% dark rye. Live and learn. Not that this is bad bread. It's just not astonishingly wonderful. (My grand daughters deserve astonishingly wonderful bread.)
These boules are the San Francisco Sourdough from Michel Suas' "Advanced Bread & Pastry." It's a wonderful bread. I spiked my starter flour mix which already has 10% rye with extra rye and made a very firm starter which was allowed to ferment for about 16 hours at room temperature. I got a bit more sour tang than previous bakes, which was what I was shooting for.
The crust is nice and crisp, and the crumb is quite open for moderate hydration (67%?) bread.
And, mostly because of how my wife's face lights up when she walks into the house while it's baking ...
The Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut Bread from Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice."
I feel better, knowing we won't starve in Las Vegas.
David
Comments
What delicious looking loaves! Tell me where in Vegas your son lives and I will meet you there!
Al
All your breads look delicious. The crusts will stay nice and crispy in Vegas. My son and lots of family also live in Vegas. Some very good resturants and you could bring your own bread : ) to bad Vegas had to get so big. I liked it when it was a western town and everyone knew everyone. One of the best childhood memories was smelling the bread baking at Gayle's bakery.
Sylvia
Does Gayle's bakery still exist? Any other bakery recommendations in the area?
David
I think my son and his wife live in the cognitive neuro-psychology lab at UNLV, but you have to be schizophrenic to get in my son's lab or an infant to get in my daughter-in-law's lab.
They are always looking for new research subjects. Any other volunteers?
David
With those in hand you're not only guaranteed to be a welcome guest, but you may have to pry yourself loose to return home! That is indeed a wonderful crumb on a not highly hydrated bread! (If you happen to visit the tables and get lucky you will be able to afford the $60K commercial steam injection oven you might secretly covet ;)
Larry
I find others appreciate my breads, but none as much as I do myself. I'm not in danger of being held as a hostage household bread baker. Knowing my siblings and all our offspring, if any of them became as passionate as I about bread, they would be baking it themselves, asking for consultation only.
Gambling has never appealed to me. I've had too many statistics courses.
David
Every since winning 3rd prize in a Skippy Peanut Butter contest as a kid (back then the first prize of $5,000 was huge, and second prize of $2,000 was notable, but 3rd prize was...3, count them, Skippy peanuts) I realized that I might be destined to earn money, but never to win it.
Only someone as passionate about bread as you would put bread first and foremost as a "must have" for a trip! Love it!
Gorgeous breads, David - have a safe trip and wonderful visit.
Being late to the party as usual, last weekend I made your Bouabasa sourdough baguettes. Had to freeze them because I was still munching through a sourdough rye, but I took one out last night to thaw.
All I can say is wow - that's one very fine baguette. Thanks for posting the formula.
Thanks for reminding me. ;-)
I'm glad you enjoyed the Bouabsa baguettes. If you made the sourdough version spiked with rye, you have essentially made San Joaquin Sourdough, just in a baguette shape.
David
sounds like a great idea! The hotels have wonderful top chefs and bakers/bakeries. I'll have to ask family about bakeries for locals. I bet none is as good as what you baked. Years ago there were some great local spots..with pastries, deli's...Foxy's a Kosher deli-resturant out of this world...you could run into Sinatra or any of the star's in town. Gayle's bakery..ha, It was a very large local commerical bakery that supplied grocery stores...back then there was not a lot of grocery stores. It just smelled wonderful - it was probably a white wonder type bread :/ we all ate white sandwich bread back then..everyone loved the smell. Just to the right of the West Charleston underpass and the local roller rink next door. It's probably not there anymore...been a while since I've been down Charleston...back then you either were going up Charleston or down Charleston Blvd. up was going West, down was going East towards town. Have fun and try a great buffett.
Sylvia
We go to be with our family. When we go out, it is to child-friendly places, and they tend to be Japanese, Thai or Mexican, reflecting their tastes.
I had a meeting there last year at Caesar's Palace, and my wife had breakfast at Payard. She said the croissant was outstanding. Otherwise, I know nothing about local bakeries. Oh, we did have decent bagels at a deli.
If your family has bakery recommendations, I'd love to hear them.
David
Well, I'm terribly sorry that I can't give you any Vegas food tips, David, but with loaves like that, I wouldn't worry much about finding decent food around those parts...
I love the bold look of the breads on those two first photos.
Not to worry. I don't go to Vegas for the food.
David
A few years ago I had the most wonderful Thai food at Lotus of Siam. Seemed like an iffy neighborhood but the restaurant was nice and I think it would be family friendly.
We're back from helping to celebrate my grand daughter's 4th birthday. We had a great time.
We all enjoyed the breads, as illustrated:
Naomi was happy to have Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut toast with her mangos
Sasha favored the San Francisco Sourdough
The girls were kind enough to share with their parents and grandparents.
David
serious bread connoiseurs.
Time's up for white-fluffy-Wonderbread in Vegas.
Hi, hansjoakim.
I don't believer any manufactured white bread has ever crossed their threshold. My daughter-in-law is both a very health conscious vegetarian and a serious foodie. They make all their own baby food, and it's pretty fancy stuff.
David
Looks like they are really enjoying your bread...good thing you baked! I can recommend a small local's Mexican resturant that the food is delicious and we used to go there all the time..Ernie's wife Celia does all the cooking and her kids waited the tables and still do...only they are all grown up now and have opened a new place in Northwest Las Vegas..It still goes by the same name it did in 1979...Vega's Cafe, now located at 7280 Azure Drive, Suite 150 in the Tenaya Village Center, at Tenaya Dr and Village Center. If your at that side of town be sure and try it..just a small place and has the best Chili Relleanos I've ever tasted...and everything else..I really miss the place. My son told me about it a couple of weeks ago. I thought they had closed years ago! They used to be located off of Arville and Sahara in the 70's. You can see it online to check it out. Just a nice little place and casual...but it is way up on the North end of town.. a nice new building. The orginal resturant became so popular they had to enlarge it 3 times.
Sylvia
The girls are even cuter in person!
Thanks for the restaurant recommendation. I'll forward it to my son. They live in Henderson, so it is across town, but they are very willing to travel for good food.
David
I don't think you showed a photo of Naomi in your December posting, David, but you did picture Sasha. Looks like she's moved from baby to toddler.
Your lovely young ladies are the picture fine health and growth; am sure your great bread contributed.
Naomi looks quite happy with her bounty. I rather like Sasha's approach of getting a savory mouthful of sourdough.
So sweet....
That's what gourmet vegetarian baby food will do for you, I guess. Sasha is definitely a toddler and frequent declares her independence in no uncertain terms.
They are both extremely photogenic. I'm resisting the temptation to display more photos, even the ones featuring them with bread. ;-)
David