On the left, cold-cloched, on the right, not.

Two identical loaves — my basic part wholemeal sourdough — had been retarded overnight in the fridge. They were brought out at the same time, and warmed up on the counter for about an hour. Then I had a madcap whim. Why not bake one under a cold cloche? So I did just that, and after 22 mins, when I went to remove the cloche, had a mild panic. For one, the bottom of the loaf was burning rather badly. For another, the part baked loaf was stuck inside the cloche. A little violence shook it loose, and I quickly moved the oven rack and inserted a tray beneath it to reduce the risk of further burning. Out came the loaf, larger than anything I’ve ever baked before from that weight of dough. In went the other loaf, unslashed, no cloche. Out it came too, higher than anything I’ve ever seen. The difference in volume is really rather remarkable.

See how the cold-cloched version on the left spread horizontally too?

No crumb shot, because the bread is still cooling down, and in any case one of them is for the client.

There’s a moral here somewhere, a lesson to be learned. It may be that I need to invest in one of those foil roasting trays and see whether that works as well as a steam trap as some people suggest. I’m pretty sure a flimsy foil tray, no matter how rigid, won’t do much for the crust, but it might just allow for greater oven spring and higher rise. Worth a try, at any rate.

The tiny stamp was used to identify baked products; experts think it belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period.

Original article: Israeli archaeologists find 1,500-year-old kosher 'bread stamp' near Acre

How the communion wafer arrived in the capitalist marketplace.

And became food. "[P]rior to consecration, the host is only bread".

Original article: Buying the Body of Christ < Killing the Buddha

Every time I see pita bread for sale in stores these days I chuckle to myself. €1.40 for ~5 is a typical price around here. This recipe will make four times that quantity, for a third of the cost, and what's even better is that, as with all ...

Price alone is seldom enough of a reason for making your own breads, because it is always cheaper. I haven't tried this recipe -- what would I do with 20 pitas anyway? -- but at least I know I have it if I ever do want home-made pita.

Original article: Pita Bread | Five Euro Food

And of course bread and beer are just the beginning of the blessings that fermenting microbes have brought to humankind over the millennia. There's cheese, yogurt, sausages, ham, pickles, vinegar, the list goes on.

You can safely ignore gods; the anthropic principle rules!