Baking Bread in April

Throughout the month of April, all during the lockdown that started in mid-March, Len has been baking around twice a week, trying new recipes and techniques. This summary of only some of the bread and other baked items he made began as part of my post "In My Kitchen in April." However, that post grew too long, so I've split off the part about the bread, creating this separate post.

Part of the fun of baking a lot is having good bread to eat. Also, we have enjoyed giving some of his bread and rolls to people who are helping us stay isolated by doing some of our grocery shopping.

Our neighbor found two bags of flour on one of his shopping trips!
We also bought some bulk flour. We hope this good luck continues.
And hope that the shortages are soon over.

Len's sesame semolina bread. One loaf for us, two for friends.

Sesame semolina bread accompanying pork with apples.

Len's Lavash crackers with salad. These are yeast-raised crackers, very good!

Lavash cracker dough being sprinkled with seeds and paprika.

Fougasse: a French Provençal bread. We drove one loaf across town to a friend
who had purchased some groceries for us. By the time we got back home,
he texted that he and his family had eaten and enjoyed the entire loaf.
Needless to say, when we were dropping off the bread, we stayed far away from one another!

Round loaves bake in a dutch oven.

Numerous other bloggers have also been baking loaves of bread while isolating themselves. For example, at the blog Eliot's Eats, I enjoyed reading a recipe from a fund-raising cookbook that "Eliot's" grandmother sent her 30 years ago: French Bread -- as well as a description of her shopping adventures during the lockdown. Also, Tina Culbertson of the blog Squirrel Head Manor, baked rye bread to go with "orphan" soup made from orphan vegetables in her fridge. Reading blogs from around the globe, and learning how the whole world is handling the pandemic, has helped me cope with the isolation that we must endure.

As for baking experiments: Len also tried a recipe for bagels, which he found less difficult than he expected. He also made kaiser rolls, and I hope he will do it again. I loved both the bagels and the rolls -- they came out just the way I remember them from my childhood.

Bagels are a totally new recipe and method:
first boiled, then baked.

What to do with sourdough discard?
Skillet-baked naan bread to go with curried lentils.

 Also, I make pancakes from Len's discard.

Coming on April 30: the rest of my kitchen wrap-up for the month of April. While Len baked, I tried quite a few new flavors. And Len now has identified several more new recipes to make from his sourdough starter, as well as more recipes for me to make from the discard from the starter -- so I'll have more bread to document in May.

Blog post and all photos © 2020 mae sander. 
This is published at mae food dot blog spot dot com. If you read it elsewhere it's been pirated.