It’s been bonkers in the bakery here again, with both of us going through another very intense creative phase, focusing on the development of a special day course on … holes.  Yes, that’s right, little empty spaces.  A big fuss about literally nothing.  (Joking!)

An airy crumb, as Dragan tells me,  is the result of timing your slow fermentation, timing  your proving properly and developing good dough handling skills. However, let’s not forget the importance of the baking method. In a domestic oven, using a Dutch oven is a must.

The two loaves in front of the wood fired oven here were made from the same batch of dough; the one on the left  was baked in a domestic electric oven,  and the one on the right was baked in our wood fired oven (Big Mama).

The last picture (two baguettes) shows the importance of the cut on lighter crumb. The one on the left was baked without a cut and the one on the right was slashed, allowing it to ‘blossom’ beautifully in the oven.