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Good Bread and Baking It

It starts with the freshest ingredients you can find. No weevil infested or forgotten flour in the pantry, but newly unloaded from the car flour.

Then you make a sponge. Then you  wait. After all, as I tell my students, baking is all about patience. And patience needs time.

This dough was made with a pate fermentee', 50% and then made to rest for another night in a cool 10 degree C pantry. Your refrigerator will do the job. No need to go to New York. Slow rise. That's the key. 

I also did not use any additives so the bread was redolent of that slight tangy yeasty goodness. The crumb structure was fine since I did not over proof it and used a high 375 F for the first 20 mutes then brought it down to 325 for an extra 35 minutes to develop the thick crust.

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