COOKING

Assorted loaves of bread from Tara Jensen’s cookbook Flour Power. Far right: Jensen’s “grainbow” illustrates the variety of grains at a baker’s disposal and their different tastes and applications.

The Soul of Bread

Baker and cookbook author Tara Jensen elevates her craft through practice, intuition, and fresh, locally milled flour.

By STEPHANIE GANZ

TARA JENSEN WANTS US TO SEE ourselves through the eyes of a baker. The sourdough evangelist is striking a chord with her stunning stenciled loaves, soldout Sourdough Retreats, and her latest book, Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread (Clarkson Potter), out this month. For Jensen, baking is a daily, almost meditative ritual and, through bread, she’s built a like-minded community. Her 100,000 Instagram followers know her simply as @bakerhands.

“You really start to see people’s personalities, both good and challenging, come out in how they respond to getting this gluey shaggy mass of bread dough all the way to a loaf of baked bread,” Jensen explains. “That process gives us a chance to look at how we respond to things.” Her disciples emerge from these immersive baking experiences with a deeper understanding of the finer points of sourdough—and of themselves.

“I like to encourage folks to look at each loaf of bread as a practice and not necessarily an end result,” she notes. “When you’ve made a nice loaf of bread, you walk with your chin up a little more. And that confidence translates to all parts of our lives.”

Baker’s Journal

Jensen and her family recently settled in Hamilton, a town of 700 in Loudoun County, from their cabin on the VirginiaKentucky border. Here, she’s resumed her holistic teaching centered around discovery and reflection, and to that end, she encourages her students to keep a baking journal. Jensen has stacks of them, filled with fermentation times and baking temperatures along with esoteric details like the weather and her mood. “Journaling is a gift that bakers can give themselves,” Jensen says. “You’ll get a better volume on your bread, but also realize that things can and do change. We grow, and when you keep

Jensen wants bakers to understand how farming practices can directly impact a grain’s flavor. “I find it so exciting to work with freshly milled, stone-ground, regional grains if possible,” she says. Local grains bring a sense of place—of terroir—to each loaf of bread, allowing the home baker to literally taste their landscape. “That’s a loop that gets closed infrequently for us,” she explains. “Not only making the bread from start to finish but also with a local ingredient where you’re really tasting the essence of your region.”

a journal, you’re able to reflect back on it.”

She discovered baking while studying art philosophy at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. The tactile experience of kneading dough and shaping loaves was the ideal antidote to the cerebral work of academics. After graduation, she took a job at Red Hen Baking in Middlesex, Vermont, and found herself at home within the informal community that sprang up around the bakery.

Sharing Bread Mastery

Over the next decade, Jensen became a baking master, moving to Farm & Sparrow in Asheville, North Carolina, before opening Smoke Signals, her own wood-fired bakery in nearby Marshall. There, Jensen also began teaching, welcoming bakers from around the country. Through virtual classes, workshops, and retreats, Jensen urges her students to consider every aspect of a loaf of bread— down to the soil in which the wheat is grown. “I like to encourage people to think of flour for breadmaking the same way that winemakers think of grapes for different kinds of wines.”

“I like to encourage people to think of flour for breadmaking the same way that winemakers think of grapes for different kinds of wines.”

—Tara Jensen

Precision and Intuition

In Flour Power, Jensen presents recipes—she calls them “formulas”—for bread bakers at every level, and dives deep into the nuances of wheat, weather, fermentation, timing, and temperature. She relies on three sourdough starters—made with white flour, whole grain desem, or 100 percent rye flour.

There’s a bread for every baker in Flour Power. Jensen’s Workweek Bread, for example, is meant to be an approachable sandwich loaf, a blend of white and wheat flour that allows busy bakers the flexibility to tend to the dough on their own time.

When asked how she balances the need for precision with her baker’s intuition, honed over 20 years of daily baking, Jensen laughs: “I like to joke that my job as a teacher is to tell people that they actually do have to follow the directions.” The recipes in Flour Power use exact measurements, in grams, and require a digital scale. Most loaves evolve over days, which can seem daunting to novice bakers, but that’s part of the rhythm. “If you are new to it,” she says, “I encourage you to follow the directions to a T.”

She advises starting the night before with a technique she calls “the weigh out,” an evening ritual of reading through a recipe and weighing out ingredients for the next morning. “It’s this small thing that sets you up for success, particularly at home where you have to navigate a bit more chaos than at a professional bakery.”

As a mother to a toddler, Violet Rye (yes, like the bread), Jensen says she’s learned to shift her baking practice to leave room for joy and the unexpected realities of parenthood. She wants readers of Flour Power to feel empowered to bake no matter how busy they are, as a way to connect with the world around them. “I bake for myself as a form of therapy,” she writes in the book. “I bake to participate in a larger cultural movement, and I bake to remember it in my bones.” TaraEJensen.com

Stephanie Ganz has cooked professionally and she’s always been obsessed with food. Based in Richmond, her work has appeared in The Local Palate, Eater, and Bon Appétit.

TARA JENSEN ON DEVELOPING YOUR (DOUGHY) INTUITION:

Tara guides her daughter, Violet Rye, in the baking process.

“When we first make bread, our bodies are awkward, stumbling, and unsure, but eventually,” she writes in her new book, Flour Power, “it’s all muscle memory.” Here, Tara Jensen’s advice:

Commit to making bread once a day for 30

days. “Sourdough is a daily rhythm. While it might sound nuts to try to bake every day, I guarantee this is the quickest route to gaining intuition fast. The best bread to do this with is the Workweek Bread.”

Use your five senses. “Fine-tuning your senses is imperative to developing a good internal timer. Listen with your fingertips, your eyes, your nose. You’re working with living organisms ... they want your love, attention, and caress.”

Be cool with failing. “The perfect bread really only happens once in a while, the rest is practice! As bakers, part of the excitement is the relationship between you and your dough. Do yourself a favor and let go of expectations.”

At a recent Sourdough Baking Retreat, participants spent three days learning baking techniques from Tara Jensen and cooking meals together in Middleburg’s scenic landscape.

Workweek Bread

Refresh sourdough starter 6-10 hours before mixing and folding the dough, which is chilled overnight, then shaped, proofed, and baked the following day. Makes one 9-inch loaf.

INGREDIENTS: 203g bread flour 203g whole wheat flour 325g water 102g sourdough starter 8g salt

DAY ONE: MIX, FOLD, AND CHILL In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together flours, water, starter, and salt by hand. Dough will be sticky and shaggy. On a digital thermometer, dough should read 75°-81°F. Cover the bowl with a dinner plate and let rest for 1 hour. Once dough is relaxed, give it three folds, spaced 1 hour apart. To fold, smear a little water onto a work surface like a table or countertop. Scoop dough onto the wet surface. Using hands, lift, then slap bottom half down. Stretch dough, then toss it over the portion on the table, and repeat three to four times. Dough will become smooth and pull into a ball. Return dough to container, smooth side up. Cover with a plate for 1 hour. Repeat process twice, at 1-hour intervals. Chill. After final fold, transfer dough to bowl, cover, and refrigerate 8-12 hours.

DAY TWO: SHAPE, PROOF, AND BAKE Lightly dust work surface with flour. Remove dough from the fridge and, using a dough scraper, gather it, flip onto a table, and pat into a rectangle, short side facing you. Fold the edge of dough over the top, leaving a 1-inch lip. Take sides of dough, gently stretch, then quickly cross them on top, like swaddling a baby. Next, stretch the edge of the dough closest to you to the top. Gently press down to create seam and seal. Use hands to gently drag the loaf on the table. The dough will curl into itself so seam is on bottom and top is smooth and roundish. Sprinkle dough with flour, cover with kitchen towel, and let rest for 30 minutes. Lightly oil a 9-inch loaf pan. Dust table with flour and flip dough over, bringing bottom to top edge, leaving a 1-inch lip at the top. Gently stretch sides outward a few inches, then cross over the middle for an envelope shape. Stretch bottom of dough up to meet top of envelope and seal. The dough is now a cylinder on its side, seam facing away from you. Roll seam underneath, seal ends, then flip, seam side down, into loaf pan. Loosely cover pan with a kitchen towel and proof dough in a draft-free spot for 3 hours. When fully proofed, the loaf will appear to have doubled in size. Preheat oven to 500°F. Gently spritz dough with water before loading it into the oven. Bake at 500°F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 475°F and bake 15-20 minutes, or until loaf is deeply browned and internal temperature is 190°F. Remove bread from pan and cool on a wire rack. Stores up to 5 days, cut-side down, in a paper bag tucked inside a cloth bag.

HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH STARTER

Sourdough starter transforms flour into “something tasty and nourishing,” Jensen says. To make it, choose a 1-quart wide-mouthed glass jar. Weigh jar in grams (without lid) so you can reserve the correct amount each time you refresh it.

DAY 1: Combine 50g rye flour and 50g bread flour with 100g water in jar. Stir vigorously. Mark line on container at top of starter with Sharpie. Cover to rest at room temperature for 24 hours. DAY 2: To refresh the starter, zero your scale, then weigh container with starter. Discard starter until weight reflects 50g of starter—plus container weight. To this, add 100g combined bread flour and 100g water. Stir vigorously. Mark and label Day 2. Cover and let rest 24 hours. DAYS 3-6: Repeat instructions for Day 2, noting the fill line with a fresh mark on the container, with date. Begin checking daily, 4-6 hours after refreshing. Note growth by comparing to the earlier Sharpie line. Once it begins to rise 4-6 hours after refreshing, you have an active starter. DAY 7: Refresh as on Day 2. By now, starter should be bubbly, rise within hours of refreshing, and smell like yogurt. If it’s not bubbly and doesn’t rise, start over. DAYS 8-13: Continue refreshing starter as directed on Day 2. DAY 14: Congratulations! You have a healthy, active sourdough starter. Refresh as on Day 2. By Day 14, starter can be stored in refrigerator.

2 0 2 2

BALLET VIRGINIA

Our 2022-2023 season of dance begins with a mix of contemporary and classical works at Zeiders Theater in Virginia Beach from Oct. 28-29. Ballet Virginia will perform a Dwight Rhoden piece. Mr. Rhoden was hailed as “one of the most sought-after choreographers” by the New York Times. The Nutcracker returns to The Sandler Center in Virginia Beach from Dec. 16-18 with a live orchestra. Then, we’re back at Zeiders Theater on Feb. 10-11 for Heart + Soul. The always entertaining ballet Coppelia finishes our season on March 11 at the Sandler Center.

757-446-1401 or BalletVirginia.org THE ARTISTS GALLERY

If you want to bask in the Art of Virginia Beach, a perfect place to start is The Artists Gallery, a cooperative that exhibits the work of over 50 fine artists of every description. You can even witness artists working in their studios. The gallery is located in the Virginia Beach Art Center, in the middle of the Beach’s famous ViBe District—where you’ll see art at every turn. Enjoy murals, museums, and outdoor art, and be sure to shop for a memory of your visit.

757-425-6671 or ArtCenterVB.org BARTER THEATRE

Trouble begins when a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks, the situation quickly spiraling from bad to worse when one of the passengers is found murdered in his compartment. Can Detective Poirot solve the crime before it’s too late? This classic murder mystery, adapted by the king of comedy, will have you laughing one moment and gasping the next. Join us at Barter Theatre for the ride of your life!

276-628-3991 or BarterTheatre.com CAPITAL ONE HALL

Broadway is back! Capital One Hall is thrilled to welcome Broadway in Tysons presented by The Watermark Hotel for a second season. The 2022-2023 season includes Tootsie (Nov. 25-27, 2022), Hairspray (Jan. 20-22, 2023), Anastasia (Feb. 3-5, 2023), R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (March 23, 2023), and On Your Feet (April 21-23, 2023) on stage at Capital One Hall. To purchase season subscriptions, single tickets, or learn more about Broadway in Tysons 2022-2023 season, please visit us online.

703-343-7651 or CapitalOneHall.com CULTUREFIX

Culturefix is excited to bring back The Chocolate Chariot Race and The Chocolate Affair this November over Scrumptious Weekend. Along with the very popular Chowder Fest and Noktoberfest, this is going to be a great foodie weekend. This years Christmas Market will be in a new location in downtown Williamsburg adjacent to Bicentennial Park. It begins on Black Friday and continues each weekend up to Christmas. Over 30 vendors, gluhwein, beer, street food, and live entertainment. We will once again have our New Years Eve Celebration under a huge tent and on Martin Luther King Weekend in January we’ll celebrate with The Winter Blues Jazz Fest. Four days of fantastic music in the heart of Williamsburg. Make plans to come and visit during one of our great events.

757-592-4289 or Culture-Fix.org

CHARLOTTESVILLE BALLET

Charlottesville Ballet’s The Nutcracker presented by Blue Ridge Bank returns to theaters across Central Virginia this December for the professional company's 15th anniversary season. Charlottesville Ballet celebrates dancers of all body types and backgrounds and our 501(c)3 nonprofit organization hosts extensive educational classes and free CB Moves community engagement programs for ages 1-100. Check out Nutcracker performances and events in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Culpeper.

434-973-2555 or CharlottesvilleBallet.org DOWNTOWN NORFOLK

The 7th annual NEON Festival lights up Norfolk from Oct. 20-21, from 6:00-10:00 p.m. Presented by Arts Alliance, Old Dominion University, and Downtown Norfolk Council, the two-evening festival encourages visitors to explore and discover the NEON District, Norfolk’s first official arts district, anchored by the Chrysler Museum of Art and The Plot on Granby Street. Hundreds of performers, artists, musicians, dancers, and makers will showcase their art on NEON Festival stages and gallery walls.

info@neonnfk.com or NEONNFK.com/Festival

HARVESTER PERFORMANCE CENTER

Harvester Performance Center is one of the premier live music venues in Southwest Virginia. Located in downtown Rocky Mount, the venue features live performances from a diverse selection of artists, including international stars, regional favorites, and new artists, with an unmatched, intimate concert experience. When visiting the Harvester, guests enjoy the wide variety of local dining, shopping, and lodging options that surround the performance hall. Food, beverages including alcohol, and merchandise can also be purchased on premises. For lovers of live music, the Harvester is a bucket list experience.

540-GUITARS (484-8277) or HarvesterMusic.com

HISTORIC MASONIC THEATRE

The 550-seat Historic Masonic Theatre is a Beaux-Arts architectural treasure in the center of historic downtown Clifton Forge, Virginia. Opened in 1906, the theatre underwent a $6.9 million renovation in 2016. The theatre has a rich history of performances including Hopalong Cassidy, Burl Ives, the Count Basie Orchestra, and Tex Ritter, who performed on stage with his horse. The Masonic now presents a Summer Music Series from June through August, Movies at the Masonic every Sunday, and a wide variety of performances year-round.

540-862-5655 or HistoricMasonicTheatre.com

MOSS ARTS CENTER

The Moss Arts Center is Southwest Virginia’s premier professional arts presenter, bringing renowned artists from around the globe and close to home. From inspiring dance and theatre works and classical music favorites to visual art exhibitions featuring works from international, national, regional, and student artists, the Moss Arts Center offers opportunities for people of all ages to expand cultural awareness and deepen understanding through the arts.

540-231-5300 or ArtsCenter.VT.edu

THE MURAL SOURCE

The Mural Source, a Virginia-based art and design studio, provides the original printed designs of over 200 exclusive murals, from Chinoiserie to American and European landscapes, and modern options as well. These murals are printed from high-resolution scans of the original hand-painted versions designed by Paul Montgomery. They are printed on the highest quality wallpaper panels and the company also offers a variety of tailoring options, from vinyl substrates through grass cloth repeating wallpapers and more. All are available online for purchase at retail and trade pricing. Visit us online and start exploring how to enhance and enliven your interior.

540-337-6494 or TheMuralSource.com NEDERLANDER NATIONAL MARKETS

Broadway in Richmond is back at the Altria Theater for its biggest season yet! The 2022-2023 season will feature the return of Hamilton, back in RVA by popular demand! The complete lineup is also set to include Dear Evan Hansen, Pretty Woman: The Musical, Hairspray, Hadestown, Ain’t too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations, The Book of Mormon, and Les Misérables. Learn more about subscription packages and buy tickets online. It’s a recordbreaking Broadway season you won’t want to miss!

800-635-5535 or BroadwayInRichmond.com

POE MUSEUM

Celebrate 100 years of the Poe Museum and its mission to illuminate Poe for everyone, evermore! A year of celebratory programs and exhibits culminates in a grand capstone event on Jan. 23, 2023, at the Dominion Energy Center in Richmond, Virginia. Authors R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Nnedi Okorafor (Binti) will headline an evening of Poe-inspired conversation, art, exhibits, and more!

804-648-5523 or PoeMuseum.org

SHENANDOAH VALLEY ART CENTER

The 51st annual Waynesboro Fall Foliage Art Show will take place on the streets of historic downtown Waynesboro this Oct. 8-9. The streets will be transformed into a visual arts festival featuring paintings, pottery, glass, wood, jewelry, textiles, and so much more! Come and enjoy gourmet food trucks, music, and regional craft beers against the backdrop of the seasonal color changes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Parking and entry are free, but please leave your pets at home.

540-949-7662 or SVACart.com

TAUBMAN MUSEUM OF ART

Named one of the best-designed museums in the nation by Architectural Digest and accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, is home to a widely respected permanent collection and offers rotating exhibitions showcasing work by global, national, and regional artists. On view from Oct. 14, 2022, through Jan. 8, 2023, is Titian to Monet: European Paintings from Joslyn Art Museum, exploring the cultural richness of European painting between 1400-1900 through the works of Titian, El Greco, Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet, and more.

540-342-5760 or TaubmanMuseum.org

VENTURE RICHMOND

2nd Street Festival—The 2nd Street Festival returns Oct. 1-2, marking its 34th year celebrating the rich culture of the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood in Downtown Richmond. Each year thousands visit Jackson Ward to reminisce about the days when 2nd Street was the heart and soul of Richmond’s African American community. The festival is a FREE celebration over two days that features three stages of live music along with a Kidz Zone, food vendors, a marketplace, and Artists Row.

VentureRichmond.com

Richmond Folk Festival—The Richmond Folk Festival returns Oct. 7-9, celebrating its 18th anniversary as one of Virginia’s largest events. The festival draws fans each year to Downtown Richmond’s riverfront to celebrate the roots, richness, and variety of American culture through music, dance, traditional crafts, storytelling, and food. The FREE, three-day event hosts thousands over the weekend and features six stages showcasing more than 30 performing groups from around the nation and the world.

RichmondFolkFestival.org

AVAILABLE NOW