The Comos that Didn't

I have two Italian como breads baking into listless loaves in the oven right now. It's all my fault: I left the loaves rising for 10 hours, which might be okay for my slow rise wheat sandwich bread, but it doesn't fly with tempermental artisan breads. The worst part is that I knew this would happen when I patted my carefully tended dough into satisfying rounds before work this morning; two days of patient work from starter to oven, ruined because of impatience and a certain degree of culinary apathy. I have a ton of biga (starter) leftover, a relief since I promised fresh bread for Sunday dinner, but that's little salve for my irritated chef's heart.

When you let breads over-rise, you risk the chance of the yeast dying, which is exactly what I think happened today. My loaves smell lovely and look golden, but they haven't gained a milimeter in the oven and have the surface appearance of rumpled dress shirts (with our names emblazoned across the top--T had some fun while I was at work). Which means they'll probably be dense, doughy and overly crisp--okay for a bread salad or bread crumbs, or fresh from the oven (ALL bread is delicious hot, smeared with salty butter or drizzled with olive oil, or just consumed plain, in secret, in greedy bites)--but not acceptable for proud presentation to all and sundry who wander into the kitchen. (Which means T. But still.)

I think I'll use some of the remaining starter to make puccia, which are little olive-studded rolls from Puglia. I'm hanging out with my little brother Lukas on Sunday and he'll get a kick out of forming the dough balls. Not that I'm abandoning comos: once we eat these lame loaves, I'll be doing it again, and this time doing it right.

In other baking news, Fred, my father-in-law, and I are making croissants in the next few weeks. We've watched the old Julia Child PBS video and read up on the difficulties of creating flaky pastry. I'll keep you posted on the progress and success of our buttery adventure...if you've made croissants before, let me know what your experience was like.