As we prepare for our dinner service, I’ve spent most of July focused almost entirely on bread-making.
While we currently serve bread from a trusted supplier we’ve worked with since our previous location for lunch, I wanted the bread at dinner to be more than just something on the side—I wanted it to be a part of the course itself.
After some consideration, I decided to bake it myself.
I began by extracting wild yeast from locally grown blackberries from Seto, then mixing it with whole wheat flour and water to create what’s known as a levain.
At first, the dough wouldn’t rise, and since I couldn’t figure out what was going wrong, I just kept adjusting the ingredients little by little.
Once I got the dough to a reasonably good state, I started tweaking the temperature—also little by little.
It was a constant cycle of trial and error.
I can’t tell you how many times I thought, “Maybe I should just get bread from one of the great bakeries in Seto instead…”
After all the trial and error, I was finally able to bake a naturally leavened bread that I feel truly happy with.
It still doesn’t come close to the work of professional bakers, but I believe there’s value in being able to serve something that’s as close to freshly baked as possible.
With that in mind, I’d like to offer this bread as one of the courses at dinner.
The photo shows a plain loaf served with Arbequina olive oil and a light butter flavored with blackcurrant, made from whey.
