Today was a fun day, featuring a thoroughly informal and just as thoroughly entertaining class on how to make bread. Eight friends and acquaintances received a lesson on making a honey whole-wheat bread. Two of them thought that they would just observe but we had them up to their elbows in flour along with the rest of the group in no time flat.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a bake that was destined for dinner with friends. I had asked what they would like us to bring and the response was "Something that would go well with snoek pate." Since I didn't have a clue about what Marthinus put into his snoek pate, other than that snoek is a fish, that left me with (in positive terms) a lot of freedom of choice. I wound up choosing two breads: a sourdough in the pain de compagne vein and Reinhart's pain a l'ancienne.
It was a busy baking weekend here in Pretoria. My lease for the house is up at the end of September, which means I'll be in temporary quarters for the last two weeks of my stay here. Since I don't know what I might have for kitchen facilities during that time, I'm trying to fit in the baking that I need/want to do while I can.
Saturday, August 20, was a busy day in the kitchen. And a bit more daunting than normal. Friends had invited us to dinner that evening and asked if I would bring some bread. When I asked what they would like, the answer was “something that would go well with snoek paté.” Did I mention that Marthinius had previously been executive chef and partner in an up-scale restaurant? And did I also mention that I’ve never had my baking critiqued by a chef whose training is in classic French cuisine? Hence the daunting.
Two weeks ago, we were nearing the end of a week's vacation along South Africa's southern coast. We had stayed in Kenton on Sea, Port Elizabeth and Plettenberg Bay. On our way back to Plett from a day trip to Knysna (who knew it would be in the middle of their Oyster Festival?!), we passed a clearing beside the road with a large banner proclaiming "Saturday Market". Not knowing quite what to expect, we made plans to return the next morning to see what might be available.
There was a bit of frost on the grass here in Pretoria overnight and the temperature inside the house at 6:30 this morning was a bracing 55ºF. By 3:30 this afternoon, the indoor temperature had rocketed all the way up to 57ºF! Another day or two of this and the granite counter tops in the kitchen should be chilled enough to handle laminated doughs with no risk of butter breakouts. That, of course, assumes that the butter block is soft enough to be malleable. I may have to set it out in the sun for a few minutes...
Paul
My wife and I took a few days this past week to visit an area of South Africa that we had not seen before: the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains) in the KwaZulu Natal province. While there, we arranged for a trip over the Sani Pass into Lesotho, a small, mountainous kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. And why would I be mentioning this in a bread-dedicated site, you might ask? Well, because of something that we did not realize was part of the tour: a visit to a small village just a few miles past the border.
This is the second bread from this weekend's bake that is from the late Bernard Clayton Jr.'s New Complete Book of Breads, as both an expression of gratitude and a memorial of sorts.
Mr. Clayton's Pain Seigle is one that I have not previously made. It is an interesting bread, from the standpoint that approximately 50% of the flour is in two preferments: a "starter" made with commercial yeast and a sponge. It also has a high rye content, with 2 cups bread flour to approximately 5 cups of rye flour.
Starter
