About Ingredients
Not to brag, but I’m told by many that my bread is “so freakin’ good.” Or my cookies. Or rolls. Or pretzels. Or whatever. Like there’s some kind of magic ingredient or spell I cast over the dough.
And I really can’t take credit.
Okay, my sourdough starter has been going for years and years and is cared for and I’m sure the natural yeasts in that and flavors are some of it, but not all of it.
Most of the bread I make — sourdough — is really just starter, water, flour, and salt. Which means it’s really just water, flour, and salt. Starter is just flour and salt but with naturally developed yeast. Whatever. Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to.
Anyway, that’s it. Four ingredients. Some mixing. Some rising. Some more mixing. Some sitting around. Chuck it into a 500°F Dutch oven, reduce the temperature, remove the lid, some more baking. End. (My Go-To Sourdough recipe.)
If you want to know the secret, go get a package of store-bought bread out of your cupboard and take a look at the ingredients.
A few more?
I’m guessing yes.
Good food doesn’t have to be a lot of ingredients.
Cookies are a little different. A fair number of ingredients.
Years ago I was photographing a home and the seller had left cookies out for the real estate agent and me. And they were awesome. We asked for the recipe and, honestly, it wasn’t that different than any other cookie that I’d made, but they specifically called out a brand of Irish butter and a brand of Swiss chocolate — although they also mentioned that a couple of San Francisco brands of good chocolate would also do. And they were right.
But, again, use good ones. I use good butter and good chips and good flour. Even if you look at the recipes here and compare them to the preservative-laden cookies you get at the store, way less.
So we think there’s something magical about homemade when it’s really just less stuff.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m not some whack-job who thinks if you can’t pronounce it you shouldn’t eat it. Eat it. And preservatives are great for, well, preserving things. My bread will go bad in a number of days. Store-bought bread probably lasts a week or two. And then there’s the scary ultra-pasteurized half-and-half that never seems to go bad.
But I’m starting to think that homemade is seen as so much better because it’s just simpler and better ingredients.
Likewise when you go to a decent restaurant instead of a fast-food joint: that’s a steak on the menu, not some flaked-and-formed approximation.
A recipe is, literally, the sum of its parts.
So buy the better butter. Use the water filter. Get the good chocolate. It matters.