The Tartine Country Loaf and an inquiry from my brother in law were the real reasons for starting YE OLDE HIGHLANDS BAKERY SHOPPE.  On a casual visit from San Francisco my brother in law asked: “How come I cannot get a good rye bread anymore?” Well I do brake for most culinary questions and I had also just coincidentally tasted this amazing loaf coming from a bakery in San Francisco called Tartine .   More on the rye bread in upcoming blogs but for now let us praise the Tartine Loaf.. (your July Offering.. )

There was a neighbor who would casually drop off chunks of this stuff as he was trying to perfect the recipe… I could tell this was something amazing.. He said he tasted it in San Francisco at a bakery owned by Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt.

QUICK BIO SNAPSHOT OF CHAD:   Born and bred (no pun intended) in West Texas, became a tennis pro–playing in competition he dislocated his knee so changed careers.  He thought he would get into architecture at Rice University but the waiting list to get in was too long…. he left academia with his sun visor and sideburns and buttoned up shirts and said: “My priority is just to GET OUTTA TEXAS.” He thought if he could learn how to cook he could always get a job  so he lands in NY at the Culinary Institute of America… and it was there.. on one of his field trips with the class .. he met his future wife and also went to visit the BERKSHIRE MOUNTAIN BAKERY..  he became obsessed with Richard Bourdon.. the baker. His wife says: “He studied baking with the same kind of obsession, determination and discipline that he put into Tennis..”

He next  became a California surfer dude and started what people like to call A NEW WAVE IN BAKING.. 

I did not buy his Baking book called Tartine.. but I did glance at his 38 page manifesto describing how to bake his signature Tartine Country bread.. and then I  promptly  got cold feet and sweaty hands and closed the book…..  but that is just how any obsession starts.. I thought why do I have to go all the way up to SF to get this.. I need to be the one who is making it down here in  my neck of these here woods.. so I began..    As Johnathan Kaffman in the SF chronicle recently described it: “its this craggy edged bread with custardy crumb tinged the color of a plank of walnut.. ”

Sure there are breads like this in Germany and France and Denmark and other European Countries but it seems that Chad was the one that said:   Okay America… its time we bring real good bread  BACK!    Its kind of like  when Julia Child brought the baguette craze to  USA.. everyone wanted to try it.. well chad did that for the big old beautiful burnished  round loaf using  a natural home made  starter… and long slow ferment using very precise technique  for the flavor, the texture and the beauty…. He demands that you pay attention to the dough….and not just the dough but even before that.. the grain.. Who grew the grain?  How was it milled?  What kinds of flavors can we coax our of different grains when blended?   How can the home baker get real crust?  the kind that snaps?  Well.. he made it all seem possible.   THE WORD KNEADING   was replaced by the phrase STRETCH AND  FOLD…   Instant yeast  was now your own blending of flour and water which over time pick up the microorganisms within the air which reacts with the enzymes glutenin and gliadin which creates the gluten particles which then are able to trap bubbles and make the bread rise..He created the oven within an oven “effect” which gives the dough the magnificent color and crust.  You heat a cast iron pan with lid and then plop your cold dough into this magnificent heated chamber and half way thru.. remove the lid and the steam duplicates a professional bakers oven that mechanically injects steam onto loaves.. all of a sudden with enough practice and flour stuck into  your cuticles and bodily  crevices  and dried dough cemented firmly to parts of your furniture and clothes.. you are bound and determined to give birth to this new breed of bread!

This is the loaf you could say that spawned the renaissance of using home made starters again, bringing small batch baking to your own neighborhood,  helping start the conversation of a new grain economy.. meaning one in which we take back our grain and not just accept what the industrial agriculture is calling whole grain.. .. deciding to take back the flavors in grains and make that be the start of really good whole some bread… Now did I inspire anyone to tear off a chunk and get baking???

Cheers and onwards to the next bread…

From Buddhism and Baking T0 Zen and The art of Daily HOme Maintenance.Meet the Baker: Edward Espe BrownTassajara… even the sound of the word is delicious.   I knew that wherever this place was.. it was producing the best bread I ever tasted.   Whenever you knew someone that was going to Tassajara, you made sure to ask them to please bring you back a loaf of THAT BREAD.   It was dense but not gummy, it had weight but was not heavy, packed with molasses, buttermilk, cornmeal and millet and other flours you had never even heard of  buckwheat, eikhorn and barley) rich but very healthy tasting…in other words a meal unto itself nothing short of perfectly nourishing to body mind and spirit  coming from this sanctuary in the mountains  called Tassajara: far from the madding crowd.

Tassajara is tucked away in the Los Padres National Forest southeast of Carmel by the Sea.  It was called Tassajara Hot springs until 1966 when the Zen Center of San Francisco bought it and renamed it the Tassajara Zen mountain Monastery.

Tassajara was redwood cabins, Yurts,  hot spring baths, stoned pathways curving around California wildflowers and rusted sculptures.  It was sounds of birds, chimes, bells and gongs from dawn to dusk.  There were Zen students with shaved heads, stern expressions, eyes seemingly always cast down to the ground, dressed in long purple robes following some sort of traditional Buddhist Monastic schedule.  On my 1st day trip to Tassajara, I was still a Teenager.  I knew I was coming to a place where I was supposed to relax and be quiet and find what everyone called “inner peace” but I was all too stimulated by the fantastic food, my first time glimpse of nude bodies of all shapes and sizes of all ages and the stunning natural beauty.

It was here in 1966 that  22 year old  Edward Espe Brown  found himself in the position of head cook/baker of the monastery.   As he says in his ground breaking book: THE TASSAJARA BREAD BOOK:

” I was about as sure of my position as a leaf which falls into the winter creek. I lasted 3 summers and 2 winter until completely devoured, bones cast aside, I was finally exhausted of food. ”

What follows is my interview with the now 71 year old Edward Espe Brown who lives in Fairfax, California from April 2016.

HIGHLANDS BAKERY: when did you first taste good bread?

BROWN:   I was 10 years old and was sent to my Aunts in Falls Church, Virginia. She made homemade bread.  I had never tasted anything so good and when I came home I asked my mother if I could learn how to bake bread my mom said: “Yeast makes me nervous.” so I never learnt. .

HIGHLANDS BAKERY: HOW DID YOU FIND TASSAJARA?

BROWN: I was a student at Zen Center in San Franciscoo and a friend recommended I get a job at Tassajara. I started out as dishwasher then baker, then 1/2 way thru the summer, the cook quits and the owner Anna and Bob Beck asked me to be the cook.. Well I quickly learned I had a cooks temperament.     It was the era or white packaged bread.   A slice that could all be wadded up into a blob the size of a quarter.   I just knew I wanted to learn how to bake good bread and so In the buddhist tradition, I did not want to waste anything so if we had some leftover cereal for breakfast I poured that into the dough and it turned out to add texture and moisture and poeple loved it.. Any kind of leftover gruel was delicious in bread. There were no recipes.. I had to learn to put  numbers to something so gradually I stopped to write down the recipe for what I was doing.   I think the Buddhist tradition says to See With your eyes, Smell with your nose and Taste with your tongue. It was very simple in the beginning.. Just make what I like.. I realized later that most people had gotten away from knowing what it is they liked!  I think the Tassajara bread book was my way of saying Look its just food.. Don’t be scared of it but people get very emotional around food and making it come out a certain way.    When I started teaching cooking classes, people asked me what am I supposed to be tasting?

In Buddhist tradition we are not supposed to beg…just accept what is given to us and use     up whatever is on hand…but very soon the summer visitors/guests at Tassajara got more demanding and expected very high quality ingredients and great cooking skills.  Then, all of a sudden we were getting the crowd with every possible food restriction they had to shout about.. The macrobiotics were the worst.. They could not even tolerate salt! How can I make soup without adding salt?  and they demanded dessert with every meal…  You see I thought when I was in the kitchen I could make something the way I like it and then Zen practice teaches you.. you must be ready for anything.. If you get angry.. just feel the anger.. get ready for it but do not scare any0ne out of the kitchen.. Well you can see how this is very challenging when you are working with a lot of cooks in the kitchen… I did learn not easily by any means to articulate what I needed in the kitchen without throwing any pots and pans at anybody… I suppose I am a bit of a guy that way also.. I hear from Robert Bly that woman have a superhighway for a brain and men just have a dirt track and it cannot veer off course  easily.

HIGHLANDS BAKERY:  WHAT  WAS IT LIKE TO WRITE THE TASSAJARA BREAD BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME:

BROWN:   IT  was very clerical, pretty awful. I was used to not using any recipes and then all of a sudden I have pencils and paper all around me and run around with note pads and measuring spoons, and lots of note taking.  When I was writing the first Greens Cookbook with Deborah Madison we would have these ridiculous discussions with the Publisher. We would write: “cook onions until translucent” and the published would ask: “well how long is that?”   us: “until they are soft.” and he kept wanting us to give us a time.. we got so impatient we just said ” Cook onions unTIL they taste the way you like them… We really wanted people to just become aware of how each ingredient feels,  tastes, looks and not have a recipe always have to be like the gospel.  I realized people were afraid of cooking.  The baking book was really meant to be a new kind of book.. more of an invitation to the reader to enjoy the process.

HIGHLANDS BAKERY: yES  I LOVE THAT PHRASE YOU HAVE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BAKING BOOK:  

“BASICALLY ITS JUST YOU AND THE DOUGH RIPENING MATURING, BAKING AND BLOSSOMING TOGETHER” AND THEN MY FAVORITE EXPRESSION. YOU SAY “MIX THE DOUGH UNTIL EARLOBE CONSISTENCY.”

HIGHLANDS BAKERY: WHAT DOES YOUR LIFE CONSIST OF NOW?

BROWN:  WELL  part of the year I am in Switzerland, Austria and Germany giving workshops on cooking and meditation and How to Sharpen Knives.  They are usually 5 day retreats. There are fully equipped kitchens and  all very clean and spacious.   I don’t have to lug around MY  own equipment which is what I ended up having to do towards the end at Tassajara. The Tassajara in recent years got pretty bare and I was cooking on a 3 burner propane stove and I was bringing in my own pots and pans… very unwelcoming so I found Europe way more enlightened about the art of cooking.    Here we have become so affluent..we are always just on the hunt for the next big thing, what is trendy in food.. what is  quick and we eat on the run… What is sacred anymore?  We have huge corporations covering our foods with pesticides to make more cheap unhealthy food available.   I was even reading an article that morning breakfast food sale is down because young people were polled that they do not want to bother washing the bowl.

HIGHLANDS BAKERY: YES AND I HEARD A CONSUMER WATCH PROGRAM SAYING THAT THE FOOD MERCHANDISER MONSTERS ARE BANKING ON A NEW CONCEPT FOR THE STORES: CUT READY TO EAT SLICED APPLES PACKAGES IN SHRINK WRAP. 

BROW people  ask me if I write and I say :”but who reads anymore?” People want short quick recipes.  I would rather write about people now anyway. I had to get over a lot of shame because I had to tell people  I am not writing anymore and I also gave up wheat because I did feel like i was getting more bloated.  I make a very easy whole wheat olive oil bread for guests and a light minestrone with a good Parmesan and people seem to really love that. Mostly I have a lot of chores that I do around the house; pay bills, xerox my checks, take care of yard the 2 apples and what is it about sweet peas where they get all netted up? I spend a lo of time rewiring and re hanging the stems that have jackknifed down and bend over and almost snap.. then there are always leaks and you have  to be prepared  to crawl under the sink and take out detergents and bleach and window cleaner and other junk so that you may be able to find the proper wrench to fix the leaky pipe.  I am very thankful for the moving around part because I have always had trouble with the amount of sitting that goes into practice of meditation but I manage.  I make a living  and have a website called Peacefulseasangha which lists all of the coming events and lectures I will do so that is good.

Ed had to go… he was preparing for his upcoming trip to germany . he has left us all with one magnificent bread! As he says in the beginning of the baking book:

The truth is you are already a cook, noboyd teaches you anything about salads and dressings breads and entrées, for getting enlightened and perfecting the moment.

still
the unique flavor of Reality
appears in each breath, each bite,
each step, unbounded and undirected.

Each thing just as it is,
What do you make of it?
Continue reading →

When I was a kid, my mom would buy a dense grainy moist sour bread.  It was sliced so much thinner than any other bread…  it was always a little more pricey.  The name of the bread was Pumpernickle . I remember thinking: “Wow this is really bread and i love saying this word. 

I usually had to fish a slice out of the  toaster because the slots were so wide.  I had to keep watch in order not to let it disintegrate into a burnt cracker.  BUT.. the flavor!!! sweet and sour with a hint of some caraway..  my first introduction to the flavor of rye flour.

This rye loaf I have chosen to bring you for april comes from the man who is pictured above:      Ephraim Doner;  He was  a dear neighbor and friend who passed away in 1993.  He was born in Poland , came to  USA in 1924 and eventually settled in Carmel Highlands with his wife Rosa.  He was an extraordinary painter, tile maker,  natural born storyteller and self taught extraordinary cook and bread baker.    Doner was always just plain “don” to me.   I would walk down the road to get to his house ducking thru a neighbors yard with  horses and a goat(I think)   then  scramble under some more bushes where upon this sweet house  appeared thru  a canopy of trees.    Don would usually see me before I saw him and would  signal me to come in.. The house  smelled of wood  fires, something yummy  from the oven.. there would be a bottle  of wine on the large living room table. I was  intimidated by Don.  He  seemed to be talking non stop  in a thick accent I strained to understand and   his arms were  raised up  high as if he was perpetually toasting the fact that  I had arrived and it was the highlight of his day..  I can remember somewhere during the conversation he would stop, lean down close to me, put his hand on my shoulder and say something like: “Fuck em if they cannot take a joke ” or.. “if they give take.. if they take yell.”     and then just as quickly start moving again and calling for his wife Rosa to say  “guess who is here..  why don’t you come out.. where are those cookies that you  baked..and then he would turn to poke at the fire,  take a sip of something and disappear..   This doner Pumpernickle bread recipe  is scrumptious. It has orange rind, buttermilk and molasses  and the recipe as transcribed by his daughter  Tasha (and one of the best people on the planet)  says to ” beat vigorously for 200 strokes”  and also  to let bread rise “avoiding any cold drafts.”  Tasha tasted it and said: “It tastes just like my fathers.” and that is all y”all knead’ to know. 

(one of doners doodles)

Its that time!  I am taking SPECIAL ORDERS for one of the great jewish breads:  challah!   This will be an orange and fennel challah with poppy seeds…slightly sweet.. light, soft… classic.

WHERE: PICK UP AT HIGLANDS BAKERY

WHEN: DEC 22 TUESDAY ANYTIME TILL  12 TILL 9:00 PM

COST: $8.00

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT ONE BY DEC 14TH MONDAY SO I CAN GET STARTED!!!