FLOUR POWER

As if I wouldn't have enough kitchen appliances, I am seriously contemplating getting a flour mill. I am done with commercial flour that has been chemically 'enhanced' and 'refined'. Stripped of the bran and germ, the berries have lost not only their nutritional value but it's wonderful range of rich flavors. Just about any grain can be ground into flour – imagine baking muffins made from barley flour, millet flour, rice flour, buckwheat or oat flour. And hearty pancakes. Or tasty artisan breads. Maybe homemade pizza? Sounds pretty exciting, don't you think?  I heard that there are manually operated mills as well as electric machines, and I would think it is a no-brainer to get an electric mill that will make flour in just a few minutes. And I will be part of the new food revolution that ultimately will lead food giants that feed us with unhealthy food into bankruptcy. Please, don't tell me that I am overly optimistic on this one... 

I LOVE MY BREAD!

I am currently in Europe and have been shopping at this bakery (see picture above) in Zurich, Switzerland, an experience that immediately catapulted me into bread nirvana. Look at those beauties, at the incredible variety! Trying to describe the different breads, I feel that I ultimately will be failing. How will I ever be able to describe breads, that are so different from what we know in L.A.? Unfortunately, American bakeries seem to take their inspiration mostly from the French and Italian baking traditions. While France and Italy are undisputedly great food nations, they are somewhat limited in their bread making. Sure, who doesn't love a baguette or a ciabatta, but looking into the German baking traditions that is prevalent in Switzerland, opens up a whole new bread world, that, trust me, goes way beyond the hard-to-love Pumpernickel. It's a world filled with artisanal breads, each carrying intense flavors that remind me of the fifth taste Umami. Bread making is not difficult, but it's an art, where the perfect ratio of water, yeast or sourdough, salt and flour matters, where the kneading method has a crucial impact, where a puritan approach using a simple recipe and the best ingredients (NEVER using industrial flour) is key, and where the baker has to be not only patient, but in tune with the forces of nature surrounding the bread making process. I wish, hope and pray that L.A. will soon have bakeries sprinkled all over town that celebrate bread as the most elementary and most wonderful culinary pleasure. Breadbar, Le Pain Quotidien and the original La Brea Bakery are a good start, but we could even do better. A lot better.

A BREAD STORY

It always seemed a mystery to me, why American bread often tastes like chemically treated paper mache, leaving me longing for those wonderful breads I grew up with in Europe. Now, I might have found an explanation: As Abby Franke from Stone Ground Breads in Agoura Hills explains in a piece recently published in the LA Times, freshly milled flour is known in the milling industry as green or "unaged" flour (a reference not to the color but to undeveloped gluten in freshly milled flour). And flour must be "aged" for several days or even weeks to strengthen the gluten that comes from the flour so that breads proof properly. "If you use flour you just milled, the bread will be dense, and not the best flavor," he says. "But a lot of commercial flour you buy is aged unnaturally with chemicals that don't taste good either." It's those damn chemicals!

THE PERFECT NEIGHBORHOOD BAKERY

Just back from my weekly trip to Berolina Bakery in North Glendale/Montrose. What a wonderful place this is! I wish I could go there on a daily basis, but unfortunately Berolina is not around my corner. Wouldn't it be great if every single neighborhood had such a delicious bakery? I love that Berolina is low-key and high-quality at the same time. It's like they would say, hey, no big deal, you deserve the best bread and the best pasties every single day. That's what I am talking about, I firmly believe that a great neighborhood bakery is a basic human right! 

Berolina Bakery
3421 Ocean View Blvd
Glendale, CA 91208