About ten loaves in now since the first time I tried it, my bread stenciling game is getting quite good! The process itself isn't difficult -- simply wet the top of your dough with a spritzer, lay on the stencil, then sprinkle either rice flour (white) or cocoa powder (brown) over it -- it's getting the sprinkling exactly right that's the challenge. (A bit too little and the powder disappears because of the water; a bit too much and it becomes a blurry mess.) I have four stencils and am already getting bored with them, so I think another purchase is in the cards soon, plus this week I'm going to try making my own stencil (featuring the "two trees" logo commonly used by co-ops) out of the mylar I usually use to wrap rare books.

#bread #breadmaking #boule #french #white #rustic #artisan #stencil #riceFlour #cocoaPowder

This month begins my fifth year now as a breadmaker, and I'm celebrating by making bread literally every weekday this winter, because it's endlessly cold and crappy in Chicago right now and this is a much better way to spend my hours these days than being outside, plus provides such a warm and nice-smelling environment for those who have been forced to be out and are now just getting back home. Here in year 5, however, I've made something like 300 of these Rustic French boules you're seeing here, so I decided this winter it's time to up my game, to what I euphemistically call "you know, that Instagram shit." That includes not just the rice-flour-covered white-colored loaf you're seeing (which we covered in the last post), but now my new stencils, which you make with rice flour (white) or cocoa powder (brown). This is my first time, so they came out only so-so; they'll be getting more precise and less messy with future loaves. More of this all winter!

#bread #breadmaking #rustic #french #boules #artisan #farmersmarket #diy #homebaking #RiceFlour #CocoaPowder #stencils #decoration