country bread

crackling country sister loaves

when these two batards crackled out of my oven they reminded me of my sister, marilyn, and me standing side-by-side in her kitchen over a pillowy-soft ooze of dough. i've been teaching her to make bread over the last 6 or 7 months.
. . . after 2 visits
• photos
• blog posts
• emails
• and back&forth sister chats 
• the result is the hand-over of my techniques to her, and a happy-homemade-bread-eating-khadr family.

kona sits in the kitchen with me every morning when i get up at my sister's to make the coffee and the bread. i think the khadrs should name the guest room the "patricia marie room" so that no one else gets too comfy in there.

on a recent visit to the bay, marilyn gave me the inspirational bread book from the legendary tartine bakery in san francisco, where chad robertson sells out of his bread everyday within one hour of opening. with chad's encouraging words, i adapted his basic country bread by mixing in my own experiences and techniques.

the crafting of my sister loaves 
(i always make two to share with friends and family) 
is the latest in my ongoing need to make bread.

this patty-cake starter is almost 2 years old. 
it smells like an over-ripe pear. it's milky, sweet and airy. 
i use it to make a leaven for my sister loaves based on the basic country bread recipe from tartine bakery.