With just the two of us to fend for ourselves at home, a boule (or a loaf for some of you) goes a long way and in fact, lasts way too long. I often forget to refresh my sourdough starter which is otherwise patiently languishing in the cheese compartment. After two weeks of missing refreshes, I decided to not only refresh it but also bake a boule of bread - like checking to see if the sleeping baby is alive and well.
Like most seemingly 'simple' things, it is quite complex and long-drawn-out. It means, 2 additional pre-refreshes the day before including an overnight refresh before actually initiating the last lap of developing the levain which is the actual 100g of well-developed or ripe starter to begin the gestation of a new boule and giving it a new lease of life before it is devoured - crumbs and all.
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| Levain is all smiles 😀😀 |
After the two or more pre-refreshes on the previous day, bread preparation takes close to 7 to 8 hours of attention, divided it may be while none will see me leaving my home for more than 30 minutes during all that time. The quiet but frenzied activity during those hours involves setting 8 alarms on the phone for 10 minute kneading, six 30 minute reminders for salt, folds 1-4, pre-shape and shape steps. Finally, a 3 hour reminder to 'retard' the bench-proofed boule in the refrigerator to slowly develop additional layers of flavour.
A full 12-18 hours later, the boule-in-waiting is brought to the foreground, giving it, its baking parent's brand of scoring before it is sent to the Dutch oven inside a regular oven to 'grow' up and be what it was always meant to be.
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| Born-again Boule |
I do it even if it is just to make sure that the starter is alive, while disregarding:
- its demands on my attention for extended periods
- the fact that my breadbox is not yet empty
- the inanity of marveling its looks (colour, crumb, composition) time and time again
- the cringe-worthy portraits from multiple angles with varied lighting and magnification
- the truth that they all look related and it is hard to tell the difference of one from the other, even for the parent baker.
In effect, it's not easy and wants a big chunk of your life with only the promise of an unpredictable outcome. But, like parents anywhere, I do it again and again while gushing over each boule as if it is new, unique and even start babbling about it to strangers on social media.
Coming to think of it, it's not very unlike how we make much ado about our children, right?
