Free Stones for Bread by Christa Parrish Page B

speech, and mostly he thickens it to sound like a Lucky Charms commercial. “It’s good for business,” he would tell me during the few times I made deliveries with him, “the accent.” The middle-aged women thought it delightful, the men felt as though they were talking with their buddy from the corner pub. My father came home exhausted from playing the game.
    “I’m good. Busy with the bakery. What are you up to?”
    “Oh, this and that.” He retired a few years ago from the deli meat truck but works part-time at the local Ace Hardware, instructing the lost on how to fix their perpetually running toilets and faulty light sockets. “They made me head usher at church. Speaking of which, remember Selah Bates, the one you used to play with in high school?”
    “It was elementary school.”
    “That long ago? Any which way, she got married last weekend. Real nice boy. A podiatrist, I think. Which gets me to wondering when you’ll—”
    “Dad.”
    We are close, he and I. Not as tightly knit as we were when I wasa child, but better than those teenaged years when I railed against his earnest and imperfect attempts at loving me, despite my hostility and the blame I placed on him for my mother’s death. We can get no closer, though, because she is always there, a placeholder for the past.
    “I have some news,” I say. “I’m going to be on TV.” I tell him about Bake-Off and ask him to come to the taping, on July seventeenth. Five weeks away .
    “I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” he says.
    I want him there. But when he comes, she’ll be with him, her ghost inflated between us.
    Cecelia’s Dark Chocolate Pain au Levain
    Makes one loaf
    L IESL ’ S NOTES :
    If you haven’t been able to culture your own wild yeast starter yet, there are many places selling it commercially online, or you may want to check with a local bakery.
    I NGREDIENTS :
    400 grams (3 cups) unbleached white whole wheat flour, organic if possible
    65 grams (½ cup cocoa) powder
    200 grams (1 cup sourdough) starter commercial or homemade (see page 45 )
    100 grams (½ cup) sugar
    250–300 grams (1¼ to ½ cups) water
    6 grams (1 teaspoons) salt
    50 grams (¼ cup) chocolate, 70% cocoa, chopped very fine
    60 grams (⅓ cup) dried cherries (optional)
    E QUIPMENT :
    2 mixing bowls
    wooden spoon
    stand mixer with dough hook (optional)
    olive oil or nonstick cooking spray
    plastic wrap
    parchment paper
    broiler pan
    pizza stone or baking tiles
    serrated knife or razor
    D O A HEAD
    Combine ingredients, except chopped chocolate, in a large mixing bowl. Use a large wooden spoon and stir for 1 minute, until well blended; the dough should form a coarse, shaggy ball.
    Add chopped chocolate (and dried cherries, if using them). If using an electric stand mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed for 2 minutes. The dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl but not to the sides. Or knead by hand for about 2 minutes, adjusting with flour or water as needed. The dough should be smooth and soft but not sticky.
    Use olive oil to lightly coat the inside of a clean bowl. Transfer the dough to this bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand 8 to 10 hours at room temperature (overnight works best).
    O N B AKING D AY
    Gently transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, taking care to degas it as little as possible. To form a boule, hold the dough in your hands and sprinkle with more flour so it doesn’t stick to your hands. Stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating it as you go. When it’s correctly shaped, the ball will be smooth and cohesive. This shouldtake less than a minute to accomplish. Rest dough on a sheet of parchment paper and proof at room temperature for about 3 hours, until double its original size.
    About 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit or as high as it will go. On the lower shelf, put the empty broiler pan. Position the pizza stone on the