Weeknotes 84

I’m calling it: I’ve attained satisfaction with my breadmaking routine. For a long time I was struggling to get better results but now I’m confident they’re as good as they’re going to get. My loaves aren’t perfect or even impressive but they’re more than good enough for me to enjoy without feeling frustrated or disappointed and that’s all I really care about.

The main improvement over the last few months is that I’m consistently getting more oven spring so every loaf comes out as a pleasing round boule rather than a tasty cowpat. This would happen sporadically before but it’s much more reliable now.

I think this is down to me reducing both time and temperature.

The temperature part is my fault. Tartine’s recipe says to use “warm water (about 80 degrees)”, which is measured in meaningless units that I didn’t bother to convert and I don’t have a thermometer anyway, so I was carelessly using water that felt slightly warm to the touch. That was obviously wrong in hindsight because 80 °F is about 27 °C, and since body temperature is about 37 °C I was overshooting by a lot. The whole process happens slower and works better when I use water that’s pleasingly cool to the touch instead.

(While I do accept the blame, I also maintain that “warm” is a baffling choice of word to describe 27 °C water in almost any context.)

Fortunately I’m more competent when it comes to measuring time. The “3 hours total” for the bulk fermentation seems too long and I’ve had more luck now that I stop after about 2 hours. (Maybe my water’s still too “warm”.) I’ve also become more strict about the “10 to 12 hours” of proving time in the fridge: I used to finish making the dough in the afternoon and refrigerate it overnight to bake the next morning, but I get more spring when I time it to finish right before bed instead. I’ve made the fridge colder too. Now the dough comes out as a firm, dense ball that’s easy to score and bursts upward when it hits the oven.

So I suppose the primary revelation here is that you get best results from a recipe when you actually follow it instead of arrogantly improvising your own broken version. Also I should buy a thermometer.

I found the ContraPoints envy video very interesting because I’m aware I have a tendency to sublimate envy into contempt sometimes. It’s important to me that I keep that urge under control since it’s a pretty unpleasant personality flaw, so I found it useful to have the whole idea unpacked in detail.

I think having a more structured way of reasoning about it will help me to catch myself more often. I’d like to strengthen the instinct to relax and ignore little things that mildly annoy me rather than occasionally allowing them to fester into more significant forms of unhappiness.

We started watching The Leftovers which is excellent so far. It has a reputation for being bleak, which it definitely is a bit, but it’s intriguing and hopeful enough to hold my attention. As I write this I feel excited about concluding the first season soon; apparently seasons two and three are even better.

Ted Lasso remains reassuringly fine but I don’t think I’ve laughed yet. Did it change? Did I change?

My shoulder’s been hurting all weekend so this afternoon I went and had a massage. The sheer decadence.

A man came and took the broken treadmill away. Now I have no treadmill.

13.1kg down.