The beginning of the loaf has nothing to do with the bread

The Beginning of The Loaf Has Nothing to do With The Bread

It was a gorgeous Saturday in Waimea, Hawaii. Clouds clung to the hills as a slight mist fell interspersed with sunshine. Sam and I pulled into the Parker School parking lot and found a spot. I'd been here before and knew just where I wanted to go. First, the vegetable stand and then to the bread stand.


 I loved getting a loaf of levain bread and a few sweets for Sunday morning. I tell you, these people had it down. Everything they made was heavenly. I chose a gorgeous loaf of walnut bread and several chocolate croissants and some cinnamon rolls. So delicious, I could hardly wait to serve them to Sam the next morning. When the young man rang me up and told me my bill was $20.00, I gasped.

"No way. How much is the bread?" I asked him.
 "$8.00." 
"Wow, that's a lot for a loaf of bread."

 Of course, in Hawaii, horrible bread at the grocery is sometimes more than that, but what the heck. I wouldn't eat any of that trash if I didn't have to. I dutifully paid my money.

As I drove the 30 miles back home, I had plenty of time to think about things. I could make that bread. I knew I could. Right then, I decided to give it a go. 

When I got home, I put everything away, still thinking about the bread. I fixed  some lunch and then went to my computer. I typed in the first 4 letters-amaz-. My computer knew this name by heart and went directly to amazon.com. I started looking at bread books and had actually had my eye on one for a while. I think it was close to mother's day or something like that, so I asked Sam if he would give me the book as a present. In a week, I was the proud owner of FLOUR,WATER,SALT,YEAST,THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ARTISAN BREAD AND PIZZA BY Ken Forkish. (Is that not the greatest name for a cook?)

The insanity began

I read the book like it was Fifty Shades of Grey. (Actually I never could finish that book. It was too distracting with the girl licking her lips every other sentence) None the less, let's just say, I loved my bread book. It was beautiful, well written, inspiring and I wanted what he had. I wanted it bad. I wanted the hard bread with the spiral on top and the flour dusting. I wanted the holes in my loaf and the tangy sour taste. I was a goner.

Needless to say, it never dawned on me to read the first chapters carefully. No, I rushed to the recipes right away. Right? 

So, when I got to the recipes, I didn't realize that I would need, are you ready? Here goes.

1. Dough tub
2. Another dough tub
3. 2 Dutch ovens
4. Digital kitchen scale, whew, I had that.
5. Instant read probe thermometer, had that too.
6. Silicon oven mitts, the welders gloves didn't work.
7. And I quote, "because the quantities of yeast called for in these recipes are typically quite small, its difficult to measure them accurately with a scale. In a few cases you'll get  the most accurate results if you have a 1/16 teaspoon, oh and by the way, available online at Amazon.
8. Tea towels as well as non-perforated plastic bags (do you know what those are?)
9. If you're going to make pizza, then pizza equipment. I won't even bore you with those details although I am going to make pizza and I'll tell you all about when I do.
10. Ingredients such as King Arthur Flour which if you don't live in Hawaii, you wouldn't understand. You can't order it because the shipping costs more than your youngest child's college tuition and most store don't carry it. Oh yeah, Target was carrying it, but the week I went in to get it they weren't I had to search the town for it. 
11. Proofing baskets, yup available at amazon.com.
12. And last but not least-THE BOOK!!!!!


Okay, let's review. Dough tubs- 30.00. with one click of course.
dutch oven- 50.00 also with one click.
Silicon oven mitts- 30.00 Proofing Baskets (they make the cute little spiral)- 25.00 and they took a month to get here. Tea Towels-they can run up to over 100.00. I am just using old cotton ones. pizza stuff, I had it already and my friend gave me an extra stone. 1/16 teaspoon, don't know haven't gotten it.Flour-about 6.00 for a 5 lb.bag and I have to drive 40 miles. THE BOOK- Flour Water Salt Yeast-25.00.

Are you ready for the grand total here. You think I was shocked at the 20.00 for bread, well, my total, and I'm sure that I'm not completely done, is 204.00. Can you see why I think I'm crazy. Oh, and believe me, I've gotten my husband involved. More about that later. But the bread is heavenly, oh so heavenly.