One of the things I miss the most here in New Zealand is European bread. Dark, heavy and moist sourdough rye bread with a crust that has the power to break your teeth if you’re not careful. No fluffy made-of-chemicals ‘spongy-something’ that the locals here keep calling ‘bread’. I’m talking about bread that keeps fresh for a week or more, without any additives. Did I mention that I love good bread?
I knew that making really tasty bread is an art of it’s own and in the past I occasionally tried to make one myself – with limited success. So I never dared to touch that topic again for a very long time. Well, that was a mistake. In the past couple of weeks I read a lot how to make artisan bread; I started to dig a bit deeper into the science behind that thousands of years old art of baking, bought a pizza stone for the oven and got a piece of sourdough base from a good friend (thanks again for that!).
The initial attempts looked a bit amateurish, but with some more experimenting with the %-shares of rye, wholemeal and white flour, the right equipment and the ideal oven settings, I finally managed to create the first good looking and great tasting bread.
Here is the story in pictures:
One reason less to go back to Europe. :)
