Transitions
Buongiorno Bologna!
These days my starter and I are waking up on the other side of the ocean. We are transitioning, finding our way, settling into a new schedule and finding our strength, our voice and our community in our new home in Bologna, Italy. We are starting over, making connections and putting down roots. In many ways, it finally feels like coming home. And for good reason..
As you may remember, my Italian roots run deep. My Italian (Bolognese in fact) mother was swept away by the charms of my Brooklyn Italian American father when he was studying medicine at the University of Bologna. They chose to marry and return to Brooklyn to live, work and raise their family. I used to wish they had stayed in Bologna. Today I see how being raised in Brooklyn shaped me- back when Brooklyn wasn’t even cool! It has informed who I am as much as my Bolognese mother has. When my own child was growing up in Colorado we spent several months living in Brooklyn. One day we were at the checkout line at the market and I was talking it up as usual with strangers- you know New Yorkers are among the friendliest people! Afterward my kid said to me- wow, mom now I get it, now I understand who you are. I now have the great fortune to be living my own dream- destiny- in Bologna. Closing the circle.
Back to Basics
The local grain community is alive and well in Italy and in Bologna! Lots of growers and millers and bakers using what they like to call “tall’ grains- “grani alti”, calling attention to the tall stalks of wheat of the past before the dwarf varieties of the Green Revolution were developed to support high yields at the expense of flavor and nutrition. Rather than using age descriptors like ancient or heritage or heirloom the image of tall amber waves of grain harkens back to the grains of the past without causing confusion or mislabeling- though the marketing departments LOVE buzz words like ‘ancient grains” and they love causing confusion!
Setting up the Grain Lady here has required setting up my most basic tools to be able to have fresh, truly whole grain flour on demand. Because guess what??? Even here hundo is not a thing. The term “integrale” is taken very loosely- and again much misunderstanding and misinformation abounds. But that is a much longer topic to be tackled later!
So I teamed up with my friends at Mockmill on the European side (different plugs etc) to set up my home milling. I now have a beautiful Mockmill Pro 200 on my countertop. I sourced some Kamut grain for my starter- figured I would start with something I knew, added a Brod & Taylor proofer to control temperatures and was ready to start waking up my starter! Well here’s where already it started to get interesting. Moving, starting over is a beautiful thing- really highlights the places where we are stuck and gives us the opportunity to grow and push beyond our perceived limits and conceptions of how things should be- especially moving to a new country and culture. Sometimes we are so sure of ourselves and how we have always done things that we forget to go back to the basics. To be humbled. To be curious.
After 5-6 days of trying to coax my starter back to life using 100% whole wheat flour, there was still no action. Now as many of you already know I am a bit of a stickler for 100% whole grain- affectionately named (and I would like to think I was the first to nominate it!) “hundo”. So much so that some of my friends have called me out on it not so subtly referencing that famous Seinfeld episode- “No soup for you!” I prefer to think of myself more as Hamilton rather than Burr- “Burr, the revolution's imminent, what do you stall for? If you stand for nothing, Burr, what'll you fall for?” Anyhow I digress.
I needed to go back to basics- needed to think of my starter as beginning a new life here and it needed a little extra strength to get back on its feet again- so I added 50% white flour. Yes it’s true. And it worked - ha! I am not a denier of the truth. My starter was not strong enough yet for 100% whole grains. There were lots of good reasons to add white flour to my starter at this point . The bran can indeed get in the way of developing the structure. With 100% whole grain flour the percentage of bran is very high. Adding flour without the bran changed that ratio increasing my chances to develop longer strands of gluten, creating a structure that can trap more oxygen inside and create more volume. Simply adding some white flour increased the amount of activity in my starter. I took off at a sprint instead of a steady pace. Slow and steady wins the race. My starter needed me to slow down, be patient and observe what was needed.
As soon as my starter was strong again I returned gradually to feeding it with whole grains. Now I was ready to start making bread! During my time here last year, I started making connections with local growers and millers at farmer’s markets and building relationships. I checked out the local bakers and the grains they were using. In this region, there is an abundance of soft wheats and durum wheats- excellent for pasta but can be less so for bread. Durum or “grano duro” is the hardest of all the wheats. It is incredibly strong but not particularly elastic. It has a high quantity of gluten but not the quality needed for making bread. Pasta made from this type of flour keeps its shape and achieves the prized “al dente” texture after cooking.
I gathered a variety of wheats to try from Mulino Quartieri, stocking my whole grain pantry with local wheats. In my excitement to start baking again, I forgot everything that I had just learned with my starter. For my Colorado bakes, I mix a variety of soft and hard, white and red wheats to create the flavor and texture profile I like. Here my creative palette had changed completely. I blended a soft white wheat (Bolero) with Spelt and a durum wheat (Senatore Cappelli) with a very high hydration 100% just like I was used to. Whoa! My first bake was an epic fail which in reality was an epic learning lesson and reminder to go back to basics, be patient and observe.
For my next bakes, I knew I had to be more systematic and develop a baseline from which I would change only one variable at a time. I pulled my hydration way back to 80% which would make the dough easier to work with and less fragile. I began working with one variety at a time, repeating the same process each time, observing gluten quality and fermentation times, then making the necessary changes one at a time. Baking is a beautiful blend of science and art. I would have to work with each variety to understand its strengths and how to coax out the best it had to offer be it flavor, texture or gluten strength.
By talking to my grower who is also a master miller I learned more about the varieties I would be using and the particulars of this year’s harvest. Although the wheats had a high protein content, they were rather weak in gluten strength. To understand the gluten strength and the possibilities for fermentation, I mixed for 2 loaves of bread so that I could make a comparison. I did the final bulk ferment for 1 loaf in a loaf pan which would provide extra support throughout the bake and the other in a banneton which once released for the bake would give me a good idea of the strength it had on its own for that final push in the bake. Now of course keep in mind that I am working with 100% whole wheat, nothing taken out. If I added just a small percentage of white flour I would not have to be so concerned about the gluten strength of these varieties. The bran adds an extra challenge.
Some might say I am stubborn, some might even say why don’t you lower your standards a bit. But that’s not it at all. This is the bread I love to eat. It’s the flavor and the texture I have fallen in love with. It allows the wheat to shine. Sure, it’s better for me too. But that’s not the point either. Just an extra bonus;)
Whether you have moved across the ocean, or are just entering the magical world of baking these lessons can apply. I am still learning. Every season and every harvest is different. There is little room for complacency when working with these varietals in their truest whole grain expression. Some days it’s frustrating and humbling and others inspiring. But no matter what happens it always tastes good!