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 Yoshi's Log Stardate -299515.97 or July 17th 2024


23'C 95% humidity outside

27'C 65% humidity inside


    Week 2 is a great success so far. The bakes have been amazing from start to finish. We have better communications with the oven entity. They seem to enjoy the sacrifice of corn meal we add to the bottom of all of our loves. It stops the random burns we were getting from the hot spots. Today a new piece of refrigeration equipment arrived and we hope it will soon find a place amongst our band of misfit toys.


    I read yesterdays (B)log and Rusty got technical with temperatures and humidity levels and how they react to the bread process. I will only add that changing the temperature of the ingredients is another way that we can encourage the bread to do what we want it to do. If we need a longer Knead time but the room is very hot I recommend putting some, if not all of your ingredients in the fridge as to not encourage the fermentation process as much while mixing. There are formulas that can help calculate your recommended temperatures but honestly just try to make bread and see what works. It can get complicated, so if you have any reservations about this level of bread manipulation remember we have tried asking nicely in the past but that seems not to work. Let me know if that has worked for you. 


    My biggest take away from our first week is that not in my wildest dreams did i expect this level of support. And I do mean my wildest dreams. I have dreamed about bread for years. I have dreamed of shaping a fougasse with Richard Bertinet, sharing a simple buttered loaf with Anthony Bourdain, Kneading pizza dough by hand seemingly for hours in the Italian countryside. But never, truly never did I dream people would love my bread. I overheard a friend while they were in another room say she "f**ing love this bread, it's the best i have ever had". My bread? Surely she isn't talking about my bread. I mean she regularly makes her own sourdough. She is a professional braker, she can't be serious. Right? My wife loves it too but we are married she is just encouraging me I'm sure. Are the lineups at 7am real or just FOMO? It doesn't seem real. I'm a mechanic for flour's sake. People like my bread? People are lined up for Rusty's bread, I get that, he is a professional. He knows food. He is a talented culinary artist, and I am regularly in awe of what he can do. But my bread? No i don't believe you. This isn't real. This was a dream, a hobby I did to feed my friends. Nobody paid me for it but now its my job?! Am I in a coma? Is this the reality i have constructed to keep myself sane? How did I convince Rusty, a pro, to take a chance on making bread with me? Did he loose a bet? 


    I truly don't feel worthy of the praise that we are getting. All jokes aside we are just 2 friends looking to feed our community with good, affordable bread. And people love it i guess. Thank you.

 

Tired as ever. Be Good.

Yoshi

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