Dado’s Bread

I

’m very picky about my bread! The crust has to be crunchy, of course, and inside – I want beautiful taste, airiness and softness, in that order and without exception. One thing I hate the most is the soft and chewy crust, and that often happens when Jugo blows. What the fudge is Jugo? Well, Jugo [juːɡɒ] is a strong, relatively warm, but highly unpleasant wind that blows in Dalmatia – southern Croatian region – from the South-East, meaning from the sea. It usually blows in autumn and winter, bringing rainy clouds, low atmospheric pressure and generally – bad mood. People snap at each other, everybody has a migraine, or we are just cranky and distracted. So, if you don’t feel well, and someone asks you what’s wrong, you just say – Jugo, and everybody understands. To make things worse, Jugo often blows for weeks, and – putting bad mood aside – there is another huge downside of this wheatear condition; bread crust is always soft and chewy, yuck! That’s because the wind brings very high humidity from the sea, and if you want to enjoy your crust, you should eat the bread straight from the oven. Now, why am I telling you this? Yeah, you guessed it – it’s Jugo season…

Anyway, the other day, I’ve got an unexpected present from a dear friend Dado! He is an outstanding sound engineer, music producer, guitar player, and apparently a self-thought boulanger! And not just that, he is an excellent boulanger! And the present I’ve got that day was a homemade loaf of bread. To be honest, it didn’t quite look like Parisian artisanal bread, but the taste and the texture, and especially THE CRUST, ah! It was exceptional! Naturally, I took a pen and paper, ready to write down the recipe of this hard-crusted goodness. So, can you even imagine my astonishement when Dado told me that he made the bread from leftover flour of various kinds that he found in the pantry, without weighing it, let alone making a precise recipe?! Wow! Naturally, I wanted to know more, so finally, I’ve learned that he made a mixture of bread flour, whole-grain wheat flour and rye flour and that’s when the “A-ha!” moment happened! You see, bread flour is a high-protein patent flour specifically milled for yeasted breads, very rich in gluten – and that’s why the crust of Dado’s bread was so firm and crunchy, in spite of humidity. Whole-grain wheat flour contains a lot of fiber and bran particles and some gluten, so the inside was still fluffy, yet a bit coarse, and finally, he used some rye flour that has a high content of bran, amino acids and fiber and that’s why the bread was weighty! So, after few attempts, I have found the right flour ratios, added some details of my own, and now I am proudly sharing this recipe with you. So, here it is – Dado’s bread extraordinaire! Enjoy!

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