Dough

When I first started making my own bread, I received Dough by Richard Bertinet as a gift. It was a really good introduction to bread making.

Bertinet is a Brittany born bread-maker, and has a few different ideas on the general breadmaking process. He kneads his bread very differently to traditional methods (more about getting air into the bread) and "knocking back" is done without pounding the dough within an inch of its life.

I moved to a breadmaker when Little B was 2, due to his constant dissatisfaction (read tantrums or unhandy fingers) with my breadmaking by hand. But I have gone back to breadmaking by hand recently after finding out all breadmakers contain teflon (read toxic poison ;-)

And it's like coming home. Gosh I love it it - there's something so satisfying about getting your fingers all grubby!! Also I find the method in Dough really quick to produce a pliable dough.

Bertinet also believes that even young-ish children can make bread. This meshes with the advice given by a Greek friend who was learning at her grandmother's knee from the age of 4. So now I get Little B involved in the process. He's become a dab hand at kneading. I give him his own small section of dough to knead, rest, knock back and prove. He's actually very gentle with the process.

The other thing is he enjoys it immensely and it's become an easy part of our morning routines on the days when we require bread. I hope as he gets older and older, I can get him to make larger portions on his own.

We are slowly moving our way through different recipes in Dough.   We've been making pain de mie and next up is fougasse.

** I love taking pics for this blog but I always seem to forget the end result. The rolls were lovely and tasty and are now residing in the freezer - all without a pic taken - whoops!! **