This post features student writing from Connor M.

Finding time for bread:

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I was thinking when I realized what I wanted to do for my independent project. I decided that I wanted to cook some fresh bread with the local baker in Iltaqui. Simple enough, right? Wrong. I have zero cooking ability. My culinary experience reaches a “diverse range” of: Toast (which I occasionally burn), Kraft Mac and Cheese (microwave ready), movie popcorn (my favorite snack – which is in the microwave for a crisp two minutes and forty seconds) and, reheated leftovers. Not to brag, but I have the essentials down and my experience with the microwave is incomparable. Take that, Gordon Ramsay.

On July 10^th, I talked to Julia about my idea and she thought it was great! So great that Adam had already approached her about the same idea.  We would do it together. Yay! After talking with Gregorio and a few other villagers, we were directed to Jose Manuel, the baker in Iltaqui. I had already chatted with him multiple times about community life, my life back home, sports, family, etc. so partnering with Jose Manuel would be easy.

After talking with Jose Manuel, we decided that I would begin cooking bread on July 12^th at 7:00 am.

The First Session:

It was 6:52 am in the morning, a full one hour and eight minutes before any of my trip companions would even begin to conceive the idea of leaving their luscious sleeping bags. I left the school area of Iltaqui to take a short walk to Jose Manuel’s. I thought some nice tunes would get me in a bread baking mindset. Feeling the 80’s music, I eagerly strode down the dusty path to his house, blasting Tainted Love by Soft Cell. To my surprise, it seemed like most of Iltaqui was already bustling about. I lowered my outrageous music respectfully and said “Buenos Dias” to a few villagers I met on the way. I even chatted with a  foremen I had met on the work-site for a minute. By the time, I was done socializing, I was about three quarters of the way through my journey and my phone had started playing St. Elmo’s Fire by John Parr.

With only a minute left in my journey (and two minutes until 7:00 am) I increased my pace to reach Jose Manuel’s house. To my surprise, I was excited! I mean, I love carbs. Yeah, I’m serious.  In my opinion, anything in the grain section of the food pyramid is bound to be fantastic. Warm bread is one of my favorite things to eat in the mornings and since I’m making such a delicious cuisine for not only me, but for all other Putney members in our village, I now understand where my excitement was coming from.

Upon arriving at Jose Manuel’s house, I found him stationed at his wood fired oven, adjacent to his house, with some bread already cooking inside. Was I late? After exchanging some pleasantries, I was told that this bread was for some other people in the village. Phew. After a bit more conversation by the oven, which served as a warm fireplace on a chilly Ecuadorian morning, he used the tools around him to professionally extract the bread from the oven. He offered me one circular bagel and I gladly took it. When the bread became a reasonable temperature, I took a bite. The soft crunch of my teeth penetrating the outer layer, the warm dough crumbling filled my head, and it was beautiful. It was honestly one of the best pieces of bread I’ve had in my life, hands down. I hurriedly consumed every crumb of the bread after which, Jose Manuel told me to wash my hands and head into the room adjacent to the oven.

Upon entering, I found a woman inside. I wished her a good morning and we talked for a minute. After our conversation, she gathered a whole bunch of ingredients onto the table and she began talking me through the process. After learning bits and pieces of instruction and information from my new teacher, we finally started making the dough. At this point in time, we were able to relax while forming the dough into many shapes. It was during this time that I learned a bit more about my bread-making partner.

Her name was Rosario, and she was the wife of Jose Manuel. They had been married for a very long time but, she had only been making bread for the past four years. We continued talking about a wide range of topics and we were thoroughly engaged in conversation. At the same time, Jose Manuel had been taking all the bread we’d been making and putting it into his oven. After time spent making bread shapes, Jose Manuel announced he was off to work, which meant it was breakfast time for the Putney group!

Since the bread wasn’t quite ready, Rosario and I continued our conversation. We talked about their family, which consisted of Jose Manuel, Rosario and their five sons. She talked about her sons. They all had their own individual lives but they stayed in Iltaqui or, in one of the communities close by, and remained a tightly knit family. Rosario spoke passionately bout her love for family and the family created by the community she resided in.

The enthralling talk accidentally distracted us from the real reason why I was at Jose Manuel’s house, and so the bread was in the oven for just a touch too long! Although not as confident or skilled as Jose Manuel, Rosario and I managed to pull all bread out from the oven and the bread was safe (with a thin layer of black atop the bread).

We had bread! Fifty-five circular, warm bagels to dine on for a slightly warmer, but still chilly Ecuadorian morning. We quickly packed all the steaming hot bread into a basket, and covered it to retain heat. I hugged Rosario goodbye, and thanked her for the talk and for allowing me to make bread with her. With my hefty basket, I made my way back to the school section of the village. Let me tell you, although these little dough biscuits may seem adorable and tasty, after making fifty-five of them and loading them into a basket, that basket was heavy!

“Guess what I’ve got!”, I announced when I returned. My friends were enthralled by my warm package and cheered me on. After my paparazzi moment, everyone grabbed a bagel and took a bite. The soft crunch of teeth penetrating the darker, upper layer of the bread filled the room, and the warm dough melted in their mouths (Okay, I admit that I am exaggerating but it was more dramatic and interesting if everyone did it at once rather than everyone taking a bite at different intervals).

I was met with a general cheer for my bread; the warm bread was refreshing and according to other people in the group, somehow tasted better than the previous batches. My project was almost complete! Julia came up with the idea that we give the bread to the foreman that we would be working with later that day. It’s a light snack and a sign of gratitude from the the Putney group for their help and hard work.

The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For…The Recipe:

There was never a real recipe that Rosario looked at to confirm portions or quantity sizes. She did most of the process through taste or eyeballing it, so I did that with her. Although it’s not helpful for a recipe or instructions, I’m describing the ingredients to the best of my ability. I guess it’s sort of an art the way they can make the bread like this, and that Rosario knows exactly what to taste to make the perfect batch to the best of her ability. Of course, everyone has different tastes so if you want to change texture, size, appearance, shape, etc. just experiment with the recipe or instructions. Add more or less of an ingredient, change the duration in the oven, whatever it is, change the recipe so that it suits you the best and makes you the best batch of bread.

Ingredients:

• 3 Kilograms (Or 6.6 Pounds) of Flour
• 3 Eggs
• A Pound of Butter
• Big Fistful of Levadura (Which is premade Yeast according to Uncle G)
• 3 Tablespoons/Teaspoons of Sugar (Up to you, but I recommend Tablespoons)
• Oil
• Steaming Hot Water

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 1,100 Degrees Fahrenheit. (Jose Manuel couldn’t tell me how hot the oven got so a quick google search of “How hot does a wood fired oven get” turned up this answer. It could be completely wrong, and in all honesty, probably is.)
2. In a large bowl, put the eggs, butter, warm water, sugar and pre-made yeast in.
3. Being mixing everything until the mixture becomes a consistent but foggy liquid.
4. In another extremely large bowl, pour all the flour in.
5. Place the contents of the bowl containing the eggs, butter, warm water, etc. into the bowl of flour.
6. Begin mixing the flour and liquid using your hands. Try and get all the flour of the edge of the bowl onto the dough.
7. The mixture will be extremely sticky, but when there is no liquid or flour left, begin beating the bread. Punch, roll, smash, beat, etc. the dough until it does not stick to your hands. It should feel that it grabs at your hand but when you pull back the dough isn’t glued to your hand. This should take around five to ten minutes.
8. Begin cutting the giant dough glob into palm sized balls.
9. Roll the bread into a snake-like shape.
10. Form the bread into any shape that you desire. (We did a circle and a fancy pretzel shape but if you have a better design, go for it.)
11. Lightly drizzle the oil onto a tray capable of withstanding high temperatures.
12. Use a paintbrush spread the oil to cover every part of the tray. It should be a very light layer of oil.
13. Transfer the bread onto the tray. There should be a centimeter or two between each shape on all sides.
14. Place the tray into the extremely hot oven.
15. Wait around 10 minutes. (If you want it to be crunchier wait longer, or if you want it to be softer, wait less)
16. When the bread rises to whichever preference you have, use an oven mitt to pull the tray out of the oven.
17. Wait a few minutes for the bread to cool. (2 Minutes should be enough to make the bread edible.)
18. Begin the morning feast.