How to make friends and influence people? Give them free bread…

(Free Baguettes offered to Residents of Dogwood Grove in Germantown TN)

Good things can come from a bad situation. The pandemic has disrupted the supply chain in supermarkets around the world. In Memphis, you can’t find yeast or bread flour.

• So I went on Amazon and ordered $15 worth of yeast. The good news is that it arrived in 2 days. The bad news is that I have a 10 year supply.
• I found bread flour at Costco and it is cheap. The bad news is it comes in a 50 lb. bag for $13.

The really bad news is that if we start eating the level of carbs that bulk buying of flour and yeast could support, we would be as big as a house. The easy answer is to make some new friends. Giving away pizza/focaccia dough and baguettes to people in our neighborhood was an obvious answer. (To me at least)

In our neighborhood my grilled pizzas have developed a reputation, so I started out offering free pizza doughs via our neighborhood Facebook page. Pizza dough is easy to make if you have made it 100 times. It is very challenging for the inexperienced. Baking is much more exacting than other culinary endeavors. With baking, you need to be very careful to measure your ingredients exactly or you can have a disaster. Most recipes come in volume measurements (cups and teaspoons). Really good baking recipes will provide both volume and weight measurements. I can make pizza doughs in quantity much more consistently using my digital scale.

Dealing with yeast can be daunting as well. I worked with baking experts from Nabisco and they taught me that yeast is a living being and subject to lots of variation. My sister who is a great cook told me: “My history with yeast dough is not good. I make hockey pucks”. She spends summers on the Canadian border, but that is not good.

The free pizza doughs were a big hit. I made a couple dozen doughs and got lots of nice feedback. I even sold a few books. Neighbors made some great looking pizzas and more than a few nice focaccia’s. But we still had 45 lbs. of flour and 9.5 year supply of yeast.

The second phase of our making friends effort was giving away free baguettes. (To residents of Dogwood Grove in Germantown TN) It turns out that pizza and baguette doughs are identical. With a little testing and finding an old baguette pan that my brother in law Bobby gave me 20 years ago, I have been making a really tasty baguette

Baguette Recipe (Click here for printable version)

Ingredients

• 5 cups flour or 684 grams
• Additional flour for dusting
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons water or 502 grams
• 3 teaspoons yeast
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt yeast)
2. Whisk vigorously to insure a good blend
3. Add water and using a large spoon and scraping device blend the dry ingredients and water together to form a well-blended rough dough
4. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside in a dry place that is not drafty
5. Let the dough rise for at least one hour or until the dough doubles in size
6. Scrape the dough out onto a working surface that has been dusted with flour
7. Work the dough into a large ball and the cut into 4 equal pieces
8. Roll the 4 pieces into 4 balls
9. Set the balls into a large plastic container with a lid
10. Place the sealed container with 4 dough balls into the refrigerator over-night
11. The next day place a dough ball on a small towel that has been sprinkled with flour and shape the dough into a 15-inch cylinder
12. Rap the cylinder in the towel and place in a dry warm place
13. Repeat the process to create a second cylinder the same way
14. After letting dough rise for 35 minutes place the 2 onto a perforated French baguette pan
15. (I have a two slotted baguette pan, so I work in batches of two)
16. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven
17. Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees
18. With a sharp knife, score the top of your dough cylinders with 4 slanted cuts
19. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a dusting of flour
20. Bake for 23 minutes or until the baguette is a dark brown (The color is a matter of preference. I like mine darker and crunchy)
21. Remove allow to cool for a few minutes and serve warm
22. Note: They can be stored at room temp, in the refrigerator and frozen. To reheat place a room temperature baguette into a 350 degree over for 10 minutes.

(Declan likes his Gramp’s baguette)

What is a better way to host a wine group gathering than have them walk into the house that smells of baguettes baking? While wine group social gatherings are limited now with the pandemic, we are making friends and getting new recruits for our wine groups when things return to normal.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.