Daily Bread: An Andrew Whitley Workshop

When Andrew Whitley was invited to speak at the Kneading Conference West 2012 in Mount Vernon, Washington, Victoria-based writer  Rhona McAdam (who had attended an Andrew's Whole Grain Baking workshop in Scotland earlier this year) knew she had to jump at the chance to have him come to nearby Vancouver Island, BC and teach. So she put together a weeklong program of teaching and discovery for him (neither Andrew nor his wife Veronica had ever been to Canada) and I was lucky enough to be able to participate, at Diane Andiel's suggestion, in Daily Bread, the baking workshop which Andrew led on Saturday, September 22 at the Royal Oak Middle School in Victoria, BC.
Not only was I very excited to get to learn from Andrew, if only for a day, but Victoria holds a special sway on my heart and imagination as a city where the local food movement is alive, well and bold. I have yet to read, Digging the City: An Urban Agriculture Manifesto, the book which Rhona just published (I have it on pre-order for my e-reader and should get it by mid-October) but I already knew that beyond the bright flower baskets, the colorful totems and the ceaseless ballet of roaring seaplanes over the harbor, not to mention the upscale and touristy afternoon teas at the Empress hotel,  there was a vibrant city pulling itself by its roots so to speak, with urban farmers raising chickens, energetic young gardeners biking around to pick up compostable waste and citizens growing their own fruit and vegetables on their balconies or their decks or in their backyard.

On the night I arrived in Victoria, I went straight from the Clipper terminal to a lively panel discussion on alternative ways to support a local food economy: Andrew Whitley was there, making a case for community-supported baking (CSB) and explaining that CSB can take many forms: providing capital to buy equipment or rent premises; contributing labor or offering administrative support; helping out with product distribution, etc.
Another panelist,  fisherman Guy Johnston, described the community-supported fishery (CSF) he had established. Now in its second year, the CSF had gone from 65 members the first year to 130 today: the members buy a share of the crop (prawns, octopus and salmon) ahead of the season, providing fishermen with guaranteed income from sustainable fishing. Knowing pre-season how much fish they should bring back made a huge difference (I was reminded of that fact when reading in the New York Times earlier this week that many fishermen in Spain couldn't keep up the payments on their vessels).
Another panel participant, Angela Moran, an urban farmer, explained how she had successfully enlisted her neighbors' help in managing her flock of chickens: everyone took turns in caring for the chickens and in exchange got a share of the eggs they produced.
Andrew Whitley - who lives and works near Edinburgh - said that food was a powerful connector to help weave social traffic and that the emerging community schemes in the Victoria area reminded him of Nourish Scotland, a movement which existed "to reconnect producers, growers, retailers, consumers and all who care for local, sustainable food in Scotland" and which aimed, among other things, to change local food economies. A key element of food security was the resilience stemming from the knowledge that these local networks could not be bought: built on human relationships, they were based on the desire to relate, which wasn't for sale.

Teaching bread-baking can also be a way of generating interest in this form of local economy as people learn to bake, "produce more than they can eat, share the surplus with others and so take the first step into commercial and community baking". And in fact among the people attending the workshop the following morning were grain growers, local chefs, homebakers and farmers, some of whom were already making bread for their communities.
I wish I could show you pictures of Andrew demonstrating how to make bread (especially his fascinating air-kneading technique) but he had outlawed photography and so my camera remained in my backpack. Rhona was allowed to click away for a while however and she was kind enough to share her pictures so that you can at least have an idea of the setup:

As you can see, space was limited (which meant no notebooks on tables either) but it all worked out  (note to self: great networking opportunities are to be found in tight quarters!).
Andrew had us bake four different kinds of breads:

• A 100% wholewheat no-knead bread (straight dough) which some of us shaped in a braid
• 33% wholewheat rolls for which he had prepared an overnight sponge
• A plain sourdough 100% rye (from his book Bread Matters, pp. 160-166)
• Pre-fermented 55% wholewheat spicy buns (from the same book, pp. 154-155)

Plain rye sourdough

Andrew has developed his own method for maintaining a rye levain and I will describe it in details in another post as soon as I make his sourdough rye at home (which should be very soon as the rye culture is already bubbling away).
A lively instructor, he kept a running commentary that made for instructive and entertaining baking. As you may already know (especially if you have read his book), he is a big fan of whole grains, high hydration and long fermentations. He thinks that commercially available white flour is dead flour and even though his baking repertory does include white bread, back home he uses a stoneground flour that retains more of the nutrients. Baking a loaf with a super airy crumb isn't clearly not his top priority: as he puts it, "big holes in a crumb means white flour and no nutrition."
Of course he had access to none of his regular flours in Victoria and I believe he was slightly puzzled by the way the unfamiliar (to him) Canadian flours handled themselves: they required more water than their British counterparts and yielded a dough that was more difficult to manage. At one point he had his assistant, Barbara, wash a piece of dough under running water until only the gluten strands remained. They were tightly packed and the whole thing looked rather like an used chewing gum. It was a striking sight (I wish I could have taken a picture!) which brought in sharp relief the true nature of gluten (which should surprise no one since its name is derived from the Latin word for glue). Andrew said that trick was a good way for the baker to evaluate the protein content of a flour when the information wasn't readily available otherwise.

No-knead wholewheat bread

Generally speaking the breads didn't come out as plump and golden as they could have and I believe that beyond the flours (which would have benefited from a pre-workshop test but there had been no time for that), the ovens were also rather a disappointment: the class took place in an home economics classroom equipped with homestyle stoves and steaming wasn't an option. But it really didn't matter. Bread matters and in that respect, Andrew's knowledge, passion and commitment are stellar; they made for a memorable workshop. Thank you, Andrew (for teaching the class), Rhona (for organizing it), Diane (for generously helping out with the ingredients and the pre-ferments) and Barbara (for making the whole thing run smoothly)!

Related post:
Andrew Whitley's Spicy Buns

Farming in Greater Victoria: other images

Bake Your Own Bread

Just got word that Farine is featured as Bread Blog of October by the three bloggers who started the Bake Your Own Bread campaign (the above image is their logo): Connie of My Discovery of Bread, Heather of Girlichef and Michelle of Delectable Musings.
I am very grateful for the honor and hope that BYOB members find on Farine enough recipes they want to try. I cannot agree more with the message: stop buying industrial bread (those squishy loaves we have all encountered) and make your own or go buy bread from your local artisan bakery! Artisan bread is good and it is wholesome. (Your community baker or you don't put in ingredients with unpronounceable names). 
By doing so, you will help perpetuate a skill that has helped keep mankind alive for countless centuries... Welcome to Farine, BYOB members!

A Toronto Baker Discovers French Boulangeries

David Aplin, co-owner of Cliffside Hearth Bread Company with Camelia Proulx, his wife and business partner, recently sent me this lively (and deliciously vivid) account of his tour of French bakeries during a summer trip to France with his family. I so enjoyed reading it that I asked him if I could post the story. He kindly agreed and even sent me some pictures.
I have yet to meet David and his wife or to taste their bread but, as he recently wrote on facebook, he bakes "with wild yeast and love" and the ingredients listed on the bakery's homepage (flour, whole grains, water and salt) are so straightforward that I am already hugely interested. If I ever make it to Toronto and if David and Camelia don't mind a visit from a nosy bread blogger, Cliffside Hearth Bread Company will be at the top of my list!

Ze miche

Boulangeries, boulangeries and more boulangeries:
A Baker's Vacation

My wife and son and I just returned from our first trip to France. It was supposed to be a vacation, but we combined pleasure with business and visited as many boulangeries as was possible.
France in general was a lot of fun, but specifically it was a real eye opener to visit the bakeries. There were as many differences between them as there were similarities.
At each stop we tried to purchase at least a baguette traditionelle, a pain aux céréales, and some sort of méteil or seigle as we are rye bread lovers. We realized that almost every boulangerie had an outstanding looking pâtisserie display so added to the bread purchases were various tartes: lemon, apple, raspberry, etc.
We stayed on Rue Chapon and Boulangerie Julien was less than three minutes away, however it being August they were closed. Many people told us not to visit Paris or France during August as "everything is closed", however as we are also bakery owners it was the only time for us to consider a visit. Yes, there were many places closed, but we had no trouble at all finding places that were open.
Besides making the obligatory pilgrimage Chez Poilâne on Rue du Cherche-Midi, we checked out Maison Kayser, Dominique Saibron and many places whose names I forget. We also visited some of the boulangeries under the Banette moniker, franchise places with very average offerings.
At the more prestigious places it was hit and miss. Chez Kayser, brand maintenance was obvious, bread suffered. Saibron was simply outstanding, beat Kayser hands down. Poilâne was excellent, what I expected, we lived on that miche for the rest of the day as we hiked around Paris.
We passed a Paul shop but didn't go in…the line was too long! The bakers were out at the side having a smoke break. I peered inside and saw the wonderful sight of an Artofex mixer full of dough, set on first gear and slowly turning, the arms gently lifting and folding the wet dough. A sight I will never forget.
There were some unexpected surprises too, we bought an amazing pain aux céréales from a Bio-Marché supermarket, it was cut from a giant sized loaf the size of a small car. We asked the counter girl who supplied them with their bread, but between our lack of French and her lack of enthusiasm we never found out.
There was also a tiny place on the Ile beyond the Notre-Dame cathedral. An old baker wearing a blue and white striped cardigan and looking every bit the typical Frenchman had baguettes traditionnelles that were flat and curved, not much to look at, but amazing flavour and texture.

We left Paris after only four days, I could spend a decade wandering the streets and visiting different boulangeries.

Le Pont du Gard

We went south to Avignon and stayed at a mas in the country outside Chateaurenard. From there we made day trips to various places, again with varying degrees of success. There was a good place in Chateaurenard called Festival des Pains, good baguette and a pain aux céréales cut like a ciabatta, almost a meter in length. In Rognonas we found two places both with very good baguettes traditionelles.

In Rognonas

However, the best boulangerie we had the pleasure of visiting was Le Farinoman Fou in Aix-de-Provence. A very impressive bakery. Bread only, no pâtisserie of any kind, no drinks or coffee, no bread slicer…just like our place:  A temple of bread.

At the Farinoman's

We left with a bag of stuff, two "Olympic"-sized baguettes, a demi-miche, a pain aux céréales and a seigle. The baguettes were devoured in a few short minutes as we browsed the weekly marché nearby, we went back and bought two more.
Crispy and chewy, these were baguettes on another level. The flavors were incomparable and nuanced: dried fruit, honey, roasted grains, mild fruit acidity. Simply outstanding.
The shop is very small, perhaps less than 500 sq. feet. Our place is 740 sq. feet and we're always moaning about how small it is, but Farinoman (as most other french bakeries) is tiny. Small in size but big in quality and flavour, as I said the breads were outstanding, falling in that delicious zone between light and heavy, everything had a good crust but the crumb structure on all of the breads was…voluptuous, chewy but not in the Poilane style at all.

***

Don't you wish you could drop everything and hop on a plane? I sure do... Thanks, David!

Ever wondered how come bread dries out...

...after being reheated in the microwave? Well, wonder no more. Andrew Ross, Associate Professor in both the Crop & Soil Science and the Food Science Departments at Oregon State University, has an explanation: it's a chemistry thing! Check out his article and you'll see that the main culprits may be tiny starch granules that actually boil over in the microwave, only to crystallize superfast when cooling.

No-Knead Bread

Be sure to check out Better Bread with Less Kneading, a very interesting article by Harold McGee in today's New York Times.

Walking Paris

Ile Saint-Louis Bakery Ile-Saint-Louis Seen in a gallery window - Ile-Saint-Louis Bakery storefront: detail Rue de Rivoli

Place de la Madeleine by night

Fauchon Hédiard

Very cold in Paris

In the "métro" Pont-Neuf Le Pont des Arts Le Louvre Still le Louvre A convent in Versailles

24 hours: from golden to blue

No bread no bakery, just the sky over Paris

Reflection