Monday of October’s last week marks the beginning of the November baking schedule. Besides a line-up of perennial and old favorites—Lucca’s White Knot, the Olive Bread and Ploughman’s Loaf, and the ever evolving Bâtard—this month I’m experimenting with the classic of Swiss breads, the Ruchbrot. The name roughly translates as rough-bread and refers to the flour it uses, a very fine grind of the whole wheat (and, sometimes, spelt) grain. Similar in texture to all-purpose flour and the ultra-fine “Tipo 00” flours used in pastries and pizza doughs, Ruchbrot flour differs from those in that it does not remove or otherwise sift the bran or the hull of the wheat berry; it retains them whole, giving the flour a slightly off-white coloring. The best way to approximate such flours used to be to sift out about 15% of the coarser bran and hull particles, but I’ve discovered a flour that is finely mills the whole berry. So—cue up the alphorns—please velcome Ferment’s Ruchbrot, coming to you exclusively on M Oct 29 (and then again on F Nov 30, in the first week of the December cycle). The only difference to its Swiss cousin (or ancestor?) is that Ferment’s version is a full-on sourdough loaf while the Swiss version depends on commercial yeast. Yudihui!
Please note that I will be delivering Thanksgiving Friday’s loaf on Wednesday. If you’d prefer to receive the loaf on the Monday before or after, let me know and we can figure out the details.
M Oct 29 Ruchbrot F Nov 2 Lucca’s White Knot M Nov 5 Olive Bread F Nov 9 Steamed Sprouted Rye M Nov 12 Ploughman’s Loaf F Nov 16 Bâtard 707 M Nov 19 Steamed Sprouted Spelt W Nov 21 Durum Golden Raisin
With all best wishes and a heart “en guete,”
Matthias