Alice Waters: Slow Bread

I didn't make it to any of my Slow Food lectures in San Francisco yesterday, deterred by hangover, laziness, and my new dark obsession with Sarah Palin.

Instead, I spent the day listening to the radio, fretting, and baking a very slow loaf of bread out of Paul Bertolli's Chez Panisse Cooking. I started the bread on Monday, and yesterday afternoon pulled the final golden loaf out of the oven.

I've baked a lot of "artisanal" (one of those icky buzzwords) bread over the years, and this was a pretty good specimen, though I felt it lacked salt. You begin by mixing a starter, which ripens for a few days, then you add your flours (rye, wheat, white) and let it rise a few more times. I went for the longest rising time, which Bertolli promised would yield the finest, most complex loaf.

Whatever. It was okay.

It's hard to care about bread when there's Sarah Palin. 

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