The same thing always happens when I’ve been on my weeks-long trips for book research in Singapore.
When I’m away, I find myself overcome with intense longing for something in my Brooklyn home. By the time I return, it’s all I can do to keep myself from running toward it (cue slow-motion romantic comedy music here) and getting it all hot and, well, hot.
My family home in Singapore doesn’t have an oven, you see — so when I’m away from my trusty hunk of stainless steel, a major itch to bake starts taking over.
When I returned this time, I was determined to jump back into the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge, where bakers around the world are making a bread each week from Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.”
On the docket that week was pane Siciliano, a beautiful, golden Italian bread formed in a voluptuous “S” shape.
It seemed like just the thing to scratch my itch.