California’s Cheeseboard Collective is an inspiration to anyone who wants to make, smell and greedily devour absolutely fantastic sourdough bread (http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/). Watch my day with them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv817PSnH6s) and learn some true tricks of the trade.
The recipe is giant sized: it takes a massive mixer to handle over 245 pounds or 112 kilos of this wonderful bread dough. But, with a hoist and chains, you can see it is a one-woman job! Perhaps not your idea of an easy morning in the kitchen – but there are some key principles to apply to your own bread making.
The Cheeseboard Collective is famous for creating one pizza each day and so popular that customers queue up in the street. They also have an amazing selection of cheeses (hence the name!) and racks upon racks of different breads made with the sourdough (I’ll show you those next time).
This is a video to give you a real idea of how proper bread (not that woolly sliced stuff) is made and, with the help of their recipe book, you can make your own starter and sourdough too. My thanks to them and the LightHouse organisation in San Francisco for helping me arrange this remarkable day.
Penny
