9/20/10 - Loaf For My Brother and Friends...
Hey All,
So my mother keeps pestering me to send my brother a birthday card for his birthday on September 22nd... Personally I think sending a $5.00 card + $0.44 postage that just says Happy Birthday is sort of lame... I don't think sending birthday cards is really a guy thing either... So what's a guy baker going to do for his brother who lives on the West Coast? Bake bread and ship it to him via USPS Priority Mail... So here's the project. How to bake a loaf of bread large enough to survive the 2 day trip out West without drying out and getting stale, and fit into the large priority mail package box which is 12" x 12" x 6"... Hmmm... Here's what happened: I had some lasagna pans that were as close to square as possible, and my floured linen couch fabric... Here goes...
Here it is! It's about 13" x 10" x 5" and weighs about 1800g after bake... Total dough weight before bake was about 2150g... It took a little work getting it into the box, but it worked... The cool thing about this big priority mail box is that you can ship up to 20lbs for $14.70...
Side profile and crackly crust!
More crackly crust!
Close-up of crack!
Some little ones for me and my friends at work...
Crumbshot of one of the little ones... I hope the big one as a nice crumb like this one... Maybe my brother will be nice enough to send me a crumbshot when he gets it...
Enjoy!
Tim
Comments
You sure are on a roll, Tim. Gorgeous.
I think your brother's going to eat that bread before he even thinks of a camera!
BTW, I like your thinking. Reminded me of when I decided to bake a seeded sourdough and stick candles in it, rather than some namby-pamby birthday cake.
You are a Virtuous Baker, Tim! And your bakes are spontaneous/improvised, yet bold.
Lovely crumb.
after receiving the bread. Did you wrap it into some linen ? Also, is it even legal to ship food products like this ? Not that this would bother me, because I would like to send my son some freshly baked creations.
I doubt the crust will still be crunchy by Thursday when it arrives on the West Coast. I wrapped the loaf in paper, then put the whole thing in a plastic bag. I have shipped loaves before just in a paper bag, but then tend to dry out a little when they arrive. Bread is no problem to ship by priority mail. It is not liquid, and will not spoil on the 2-3 days it takes to get there...
If your brother quickly runs the whole bread through the running faucet and rebakes for about 12+- minutes in a preheated 300 oven, the crust will be nice and crunchy again.
I would not attempt to mail a French type of bread and expect it to arrive in good shape. A bread made with white flour will always be stale after three days, no matter what.
Sourdough breads with rye, whole wheat or spelt stay much longer fresh.
Karin
Well, the loaves I send are usually 1kg to 2kg, so they are quite large. Sourdough helps them stay fresh. Don't even bother with baguettes, or anything small... I usually make my levain at least with whole grain, and the rest is white AP flour...
Tim
You have a very lucky brother
So my brother was nice enough to send me a picture of the crumb...