Monday, January 21, 2002


baked the bread at 10am today. . .it wasn't as tangy as i had hoped, nor quite as thickly crusty. however, mr. right actually prefers a less-tangy bread with a thinner but still crackly crust. so it was perfect for him! hey, coulda been worse. making mr. right happy isn't a bad thing. . .

due to the farro in the starter, the bread did have a delicious, nutty taste. so i'm calling it a winner. as for the daily latte, however, that was more complex.

generally, with home espresso machines, the problem is to make sure that they are hot enough, that you'll be making coffee in that 200-203 degree zone for sweetest extraction. so people employ all kinds of crazy techniques -- adding electronic thermometers, or fancy rituals of letting the machine heat, drawing off some water, letting it heat again, known as temperature surfing.

this morning, due to baking activities, i let the silvia heat for longer than usual, about 40 minutes. then i went through the whole temperature surfing thing. only to get coffee with a too-dark, mud-colored crema! the machine was too hot, and i had burnt the coffee. it was a first -- like most people, i usually struggle to get the machine hot enough. i had to toss my first shot and make another, after drawing some water to cool the machine.

note to self: if you heat the machine for 40 minutes instead of the usual 20 -- it's hot enough! don't try to heat it any more! while i know many people pre-heat the silvia for as much as an hour, in my experience: it's not necessary. another case of less is more. . .

posted by fortune | 10:23 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments