Rosemary boules
Mixed: 12:10 pm
Molded: 2:30 (and overproofed…)
Baked: 3:45 (and underbaked…)
Gave a boule to the Harris Family
This sweet little (overproofed and underbaked) boule is sitting next to me as I drove to the Harris house. I posted last time about my under-performing oven, and this sad little loaf of bread is the result. The Harris’s are all-forgiving, so I knew I could share with them. And I was in the mood for sharing. Thank goodness for friends!
Sharing is contagious. Our neighborhood has become a place of exchange. Lemons for avocados, chicken-sitting for avocados, okay, just take the avocados!!! (By the way, we gladly accept avocados as payment for anything, since we don’t have a tree, but those who have a tree can ONLY eat so much guacamole…)
Anyway, back to the bread, our oven is being quite uncooperative. I baked the rosemary boules at less than an ideal temperature (400 :() I was looking to bake in a neighbor’s oven, but then I turned the oven on and it worked!–sort of… Not really.
So, we had Jerry, the OvenGuy, over to take a look. And guess what? He turned the oven on and it heated to 500 degrees in no time. Figures. ($89)
And of course, you know the story, when we ran a trial run today… It didn’t work.
Okay, we still ate the bread, just like the all the Harris’s did. Here was our dinner:
I’m not even going to talk about it. Life without a properly working oven is pretty lame.
For me anyway…
So, today, instead of baking, despite the fog and the mist, and the overall drizzlyness, we went to the BEACH!!!
The Woman and the Wheat 
The bread looks good to me. Goodness knows how many times I’ve overproofed and undercooked. I finally made a loaf of Modena Mountain bread which was slightly undercooked, but still worth the indulgence. If I would make it more often, I might get better at it. Anyway – loved your post.
Gina–you’ve mentioned this Modena Mountain bread a couple times now. Tell me more! It sounds very intriguing… And… right now, as fall finally settles in here… I’m missing Colorado, and the mountains, more than anything…
Jane , I should get into your sites more often . They are so so worthwhile. I really appreciate seeing the photos ( so cute of you and John Ronan ) We all can relate to you adventures with the oven. How frustrating. …Your devoted mother, and one of your biggest fans.
Ahhhhh…. My mama reads my blog. How sweet is that?!!! Love you, Mom…
Oh, yea! The rosemary boule was truly delicious. Thank you, Jane, for sharing with us. And then today you called and offered to do the carpool driving so I could give my lame shoulder a rest (and frankly, it was probably safer than me driving with one arm). Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Jane,
I forgot to check to see if you had responded to my comment. Just thought of it now as I was reading your latest post. Modena Mountain Bread is arecipe from a lovely northern Italian cookbook by Lynn Rossetto Kasper called The Splendid Table. I would be glad to type up the recipe and send it to you. I did do a little googling to see if I could find it on line and send a link, but I didn’t have any luck. It may be out there though.
This is a 22 hour project of mostly waiting while it does it’s thing. The bread involves an overnight sponge and then a dough made with a boiled potato and cooked wheat berries. It’s very good.
It might be possible to contact Lynn at the following link to get a copy of the recipe somewhere on line. But I would be glad to type it up and send it to you.
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/newsletter/