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may be of interest to you once you have the fundamentals down pat. There is also a trouble shooting table to help you pin down any problems you might be having. Everything here is based on our own experiments (which seem endless) and our experience over the last four years of daily or twice-weekly bakings, not only one recipe at a time but also in giant batches of more than 30 loaves, baked on the hearth. Still, it is not unlikely that you will come up with improvements, or perhaps have questions that are not answered here. If so, we would love to hear from you. It seems that every time we bake, someone rhapsodizes, “This is the best desem bread we have ever had!” May it be so with you, too.

SHAPING: OTHER POSSIBILITIES

Desem can be formed into standard loaf shapes and baked in loaf pans. To cover them for steamy baking, simply invert a loaf pan and put it on top. You will need 3 ½ pounds for two 8″x4″ loaf pans—slightly more than the quantities in this recipe yield; maybe generously rounding your cup and spoon measures is the simplest way of increasing the quantity of dough. The dough for pan loaves is best made slacker (with more water), because with the pan to support it, softer dough rises better.

Slash the tops to give them room for rising—three diagonal slashes, holding the knife blade almost parallel to the surface of the loaf. This makes very pretty loaves.

Desem makes fine French-type crusty rolls. Use the dough for one loaf to make half a dozen or more round or torpedoshaped rolls. Proof and bake as you do the hearth bread, but slash the rolls with a very sharp knife held on the diagonal, just before putting them into the steamy oven. Bake until done, about ½ hour to 45 minutes, depending on their size.

This can be a controversial suggestion, but some think that a few raisins in the desem buns are a delicious addition. Sesame on the outside gives a third alternative. Whatever way you prepare these, providing there is plenty of steam in the oven, they are outrageously delicious, crusty-tender. They’re great the next day in the lunchbox, too, particularly if you take care not to overcook them or to let them dry out afterwards.

TIPS ON STORING YOUR BREAD

Desem bread keeps very well: it maintains its fresh flavor for several days stored in a ventilated but closed container like a bread bin. To keep it moist as long as a week, cool the loaves completely and refrigerate them tightly sealed in a plastic bag. Some of our friends who make sandwiches from their desem bread all week prefer to slice and freeze the amount needed for the last few days; some others say that the bread isn’t even at its best until it has aged a few days.

You can revive a loaf that has lost the dew of freshness: brush it with water, wrap in foil or brown paper, and put it into a 350°F oven for about ten minutes.

Troubleshooting Desem Bread

If your loaves are dense and heavy:

The desem has become alcoholic (see Nursing a Neglected Desem).

The dough was not kneaded well enough.

The flour you used had a low gluten content.

The proof temperature was too low.

The water was chlorinated.

The flour you have been feeding your desem is poor quality.

The starter was not fully ripened.

You omitted the “round and rest” step.

If the bread tastes sour:

The desem has become alcoholic.

The desem was stored too warm.

The mixing water was too warm.

The dough fermented too warm.

It fermented and/or proofed too long.

The flour or wheat was of poor quality.

If there’s a big space just under the top crust (“flying crust”):

You didn’t poke it—or poke it enough—with a skewer.

If there are big cracks or splits in the crust:

The dough had not relaxed when the loaf was formed.

The gluten was weakened.

Several things can do this:

using too much starter over-or underkneading fermenting too long or too warm

using flour that is too low in gluten or not good quality.

If the crust is thick and tough, or pale:

Most likely there was not enough steam at the beginning of the bake.

Other Uses for Ripe Desem

Suppose you can’t bake bread