I have found the perfect baguette in San Francisco. In my kitchen.

I've tried making baguettes before now, with very limited success. But a recent trip to France reminded me how wonderful a fresh, traditionally made, still warm baguette really is. Thanks to some videos from Boulangerie Net (http://www.boulangerie.net/forums/bnweb/videobn.php ) and a recipe largely from Cook's Illustrated (http://www.mikedesilver.com/FrenchBaguettesRecipe.pdf ), and the above is the (finally happy!) result.

I'm so proud - they even "sang" as I took this photo (they crackle as they cool down). Now I'm wondering if I should open up a store; let me know if you think "yes!!!" :)

It turns out, that producing excellent baguettes in your own kitchen is mainly a matter of ingredients and technique. By ingredients I mean good bread flour (not supermarket all purpose white flour unfortunately) and pre-ferment sponge for the yeast. By technique I mean that it takes at least 30 hours - French traditions exist for a reason, after all.

Here's my simple rules to remember, if you want to try it yourself:

  1. Always use a pre-ferment (see the recipe). Never use dried yeast right out of the packet straight in your bread.
  2. Set aside at least 30 hours for this bread. Minimum of 6 for the pre-ferment, and 24 for rising, resting in the fridge, shaping and baking. I make the pre-ferment in the morning, the dough that night, first rise that night, then into the fridge, then shape and bake the second night.
  3. Fold salt into the dough during kneading. Never mix salt with the flour - the yeast is inhibited if you do this.
  4. Get linen teatowels to hold and stabilise the baguettes after shaping, when they rise for 40 to 45 minutes before baking. It's easy to tip them out onto your tray or stone after this (see the video).
  5. Roll those baguettes tight when you're shaping them (again, see the video).
  6. Make sure you slash the baguettes after they've risen and are about to go into the oven. Never slash them before rising.
  7. Always bake baguettes in an extremely hot oven. 500F in a regular oven, 450F in a convection oven. Use an oven thermometer.
  8. Make sure to steam the baguettes whilst baking. To do this fill a pan with water and pop it in the oven 5 minutes before the bread goes in.

Rule 8 really surprised me. Whilst professional bakers have very different ovens to you and I and can produce that crust in 10 minutes or less, we need 25 minutes baking and the steam really solves the problems of needing moisture in the crust during that baking time. This steaming really is a key secret to the lovely, tense, crunchy crust that wraps and protects the moist hole-shot crumb.

A hot baguette that you just produced by your own hands is a joy to behold. Enjoy it with some soft French cheeses, or perhaps my fresh hummus. Give it a try.

The iPad rocks my world, and you know it droid-boy

*Re-sending Aug 6th, initially sent Weds Aug 4th during Posterous' outage due DoS attacks* 

Earlier tonight I dropped my wife, Jodie, off at the International Terminal at San Francisco airport, for a quick 1-week trip home to Aus to take care of some family stuff. Normally when we fly this kind of distance she has her regular suitcase (mid-size, bit bigger than an American-style roll-aboard case), and her little mini roll-aboard suitcase as a carry-on; and in this latter one is normally a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizers, headache pills and Ambien tablets, wallet, passport, pen, 3 magazines, a book, maybe my book, a camera, her jacket, my jacket, and some other random shit. Tonight, she hopped out of the car with just one suitcase, and a handbag. Like this:

Why? Two days ago she got an iPad. Our first in this house. My friends are mostly surprised that I'd been holding out, but I secretly am a tight-arse (tight fisted here in the US) and was hoping to see maybe a front-facing camera, or a Retina display before dropping the Benjamins on a first release unit. But as we got her itinerary prepared for this trip, it became clear that the investment was worth it right now - not 14 months in the future when Apple somehow moved heaven and earth again (maybe). 

How? Just look at these ticket prices, focusing on the third line:
  1. Ticket price on Qantas, direct flight, cheapest Economy seats: ~$1450
  2. Ticket price on V.Australia, layovers in LAX both ways (sucks balls), cheapest Economy seats: ~$1550
  3. Ticket price on United (gasp!), direct flights, Economy Plus seats +iPad: ~$1650

So we naturally, decidedly, and quickly booked United (gasp! again, my friend Alex is going to think I've lost it as I was just dissing the heck out of them last week) and promptly went out and bought a 32GB iPad. 

So back to tonight; I (and the dog) dropped Jodes at the airport with just one suitcase and that handbag, because in it, she had a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizer, pills, passport and wallet, and an iPad. And on that iPad is:

And still there's 22GB of free space for more content, and the 8 to 10 hour battery. This is why the iPad rocks my world. Tell me again, why I'm supposed to moan about Jobs having a deity complex, and hopefully wait for a semi-functional Android or WebOS tablet with an unknown delivery timeframe? Or even worse, a Windows tablet (yet again) with nothing but Office apps for company, and quite possibly a shitty stylus (yet again)? Once more, this is why the iPad rocks my world: it's here, it works, it's gorgeous, and it changes your life. Computing can only get better. I'm looking forward to being part of it. Devices/software like the iPad remind me why. 

Vendors hide final prices in online transactions. Expedia is (sadly) no exception

Alright Expedia, I'm sure you've got a fabulous excuse worked out that covers your arse sweetly. But, I am getting ahead of myself. What am I moaning about here? Recently (like, this morning), my wife Jodie landed in Sydney and suddenly found herself in possession of an Expedia itinerary for a Thrifty rental car that had magically "unconfirmed" itself during the flight. So I logged in to book her a new one. Surprise surprise, Thrifty had no idea why that class of car might be offered at that price; it was way too low, and that location never stocks those cars. Strange feeling about Expedia #1. "Nevermind, it's probably just a mistake" I thought, and so I opted for the Budget Mini car, at a higher base price of $29.79 a day (before fees, taxes, surcharges, insurance, waivers, fuel, and various other amazing hidden $ amounts). I booked it after clicking through a gaggle of cluttered pages and options, finally getting the "Confirm! You Win!" sort of button - the one that signifies blessed relief, ahem, the end of a tedious series of cluttered adverts and pointless pages - several pages later.

And then I realised that the fuckers had somehow flipped from a daily price, to an all in weekly price at a higher rate, and then back to the new daily price at a higher rate (again) of $33.79. Hmm, that 79 cents sounds oddly in line with the earlier $29.79 - that's suspicious too, but I primarily flipped a lid given that the daily rate had gone up by $4 magically during the process. $4 a day isn't much. A lot of people just wouldn't notice this. And so, to my question.

Dear Expedia: just how do you explain this last minute difference in pricing on Budget's "Mini" car - in Australia - once a customer has selected the car and they go to confirm it... Are you actively preying on our click weariness (where people just click "next" "next" "next" *ok, fuck all this clicking, aha!* "confirm!")? Or is the mis-pricing up front a genuine error (yet again)? Or are you just plain hiding the true price in order to get customers well into the process and signing up anyway? I'm at a loss.


I've done what seemed like reasonable business with you Expedia, and yet afterwards somehow I feel dirty, and like I've been fleeced. You make me feel like the john who goes to the bathroom and returns to find the "lady" has scarpered off into the night, along with his wallet. This isn't the way to win customer support. Explain yourselves.

Oh, and I cancelled shortly after when I realised what Expedia did. For the meantime, they can forget all about my wallet. I've locked myself in the bathroom with it.