Master baker Lionel Vatinet believes in the magic of baking bread. And by the time he’d finished his recent bread demonstration at Serenbe’s Bosch Experience Center, all 70 people in attendance did as well. Or maybe their mouths were too full of fresh sourdough to say otherwise.

I’ve always been interested in the metaphysics of—and the energy behind—bread. You put flour and yeast together and it becomes something incredibly wonderful. Lionel, who was born in France and now owns La Farm Bakery in Cary, North Carolina, is very keen on the whole aspect of handling the dough lovingly and letting it know you. No gloves allowed!

Talking with Lionel brought back so many memories of baking bread with my Aunt Merle, my mother’s favorite sister. She was the head of public nursing for Dekalb County and took me to my first symphony when I was 12. I’m the fifth Merle Marie in my family and was named after her, though for some reason I was called by my middle name.

This recipe for Vatinet’s La Farm Bread comes from his new cookbook A Passion For Bread: Lessons from a Master. If you have flour, salt, water, starter, hands and an oven, you can make some magic in your own kitchen.

La Farm Bread
4 ½ cups unbleached, unbromated white bread flour
¾ cup unbromated whole-wheat bread flour
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
2 ¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon water
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons starter

Place flours, salt, starter and water in mixing bowl.

Begin mixing at low speed (#2 on Kitchen Aid Mixer with a dough hook) for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, increase speed (#4 on Kitchen Aid Mixer) for 2 more minutes.

The temperature of the dough should be between 72°F and 80°F. The dough should be soft to the touch and moist feeling, but should not stick to fingers. Place dough in a bowl that had been lightly dusted with flour. Cover with plastic and let rise for 1 hour. Fold the dough by lifting each of the corners of dough and folding them into the center. Cover the dough with plastic and return to a warm, draft-free place for another hour. Repeat this folding process a second time, and let rest for a third hour.

Since you are making one loaf, no dividing is needed.

Shape the dough into a boule. Lightly dust a banneton with flour. Place the dough in the banneton, seam side up. Throw a light film of flour over the top to keep the plastic from sticking, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Let the dough proof for 2½-3 hours in a warm, draft-free place.

Place a piece of parchment paper on a bread peel. Turn the dough onto the peel, bottom side up. Using a single-edged razor blade, score the loaf, just barely breaking through the skin and cutting about ⅛ inch into the dough. Bake at 450°F for about 40 minutes until the bread is a deep golden brown with a crisp crust and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

I wouldn’t even call Michel Nischan a reformed hippie—he’s a hippie. He’s also a restaurateur, two-time James Beard Award winner and the founder, president and CEO of Wholesome Wave, the national non-profit brings fresh, locally grown food to people in urban and rural communities.

And he never went to cooking school.

I met Michel years ago at the first Southern Chefs Potluck, which is an annual fundraiser for Wholesome Wave. But it wasn’t until a few years later at another event when we realized we were long lost siblings. And like siblings sometimes do, we cooked up a crazy scheme where he invited his chef friends to appear at the Southern Chefs Series and we’d donate all the proceeds to Wholesome Wave. That was the 2013 series and we raised more than $65,000.

The last SCS of 2013 was co-hosted by Michel and I: He did dinner, I did lunch the next day and we acted as sous chef for each other. I did greens and hominy stew and hoe cakes with watercress, icicle radishes, poached eggs, bacon and warm onion vinaigrette. Michel did so many delicious dishes, but my favorite was his Naughty Angel, or fried angel food cake. He said it was something his mother, his food mentor and hero, used to make for him and his brother. It was crazy good and so, so simple.

Use the recipe below to make the cake from scratch, or buy the cake and use the second part of the recipe to pan-fry it.

Michel Nischan’s Naughty Angel Food Cake
9 cups egg whites
10.5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons Cream of Tartar
6 cups cake flour
1.5 cups almond flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2-3 tablespoons local honey, jam or caramel sauce

Mise en place all ingredients. Add two cups of the sugar to the flour and sift.

Whisk the Cream of Tartar into the remaining sugar. On high speed, whip the egg whites while gradually sprinkling in the sugar. Whip to a medium peak.

Gradually fold the dry mixture into the egg whites. Use a fold motion and not a stirring motion, as this may deflate the egg whites. Make sure there are no streaks of flour in the batter.

Divide between 4 pans and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Do not open the oven door during this time. Continue baking for an additional 35 minutes.

Once cake has cooled, slice the cake and lightly butter each side. Lay them in a non-stick skillet and pan fry over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom. Turn the slices and fry until lightly browned on the other side.

Transfer each slice to a plate and immediately drizzle with honey. If you want to use jam or caramel sauce, dump it into a hot pan off the heat, stirring it until it melts, then spoon it over the cake slices.

Next up in the Southern Chefs Series is my dear friend and food mentor, Nathalie Dupree. Join us March 23-24 and find out more details here.

I Love Ewe: Even the sheep are feeling the Valentine’s Day love at Serenbe.

Someone asked me recently if I celebrate Valentine’s Day and I said I didn’t—I’m always working, so Steve and I don’t go out to dinner. But later, when I thought about it, I realized I celebrate in other ways: I decorate my window with hearts, make Valentine treat bags for some of my neighbors and even create a special aphrodisiac menu for The Farmhouse.

This year we’re doing Bibb lettuce with sherry honey vinaigrette, beef tenderloin with toasted almonds and garlic pureed potatoes and steamed lobster with roasted asparagus. Honey and almonds have been associated with fertility for centuries, garlic is known to increase sex drive and asparagus … well, I think seeing is believing there.

I’m also making my mother’s oyster stew. It was one of my father’s favorite soups and she’d make it for him all the time. Oysters are one of the most popular aphrodisiacs around, but I doubt that’s why he liked it. Probably had more to do with the slight bite of Tabasco in the warm cream.

Oyster Stew

Makes 5 servings

1 pint fresh oysters, shucked
½ cup butter
1 quart milk
1 pint cream
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Several dashes Tabasco sauce
Paprika for sprinkling, if desired

Drain the oysters over a bowl, reserve liquid and set aside. Melt the butter in a heave two-quart saucepan. When it bubbles, add the drained oysters. Cook and stir over low heat for about 10 minutes, until oysters are well done.

Add the drained liquid from the oysters, plus the milk, cream, salt, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Taste and season.

Sprinkle lightly with paprika, if you wish, and serve with oyster crackers, dropping several into each bowl as a garnish just before serving.

When Chris Hastings, chef/owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Alabama, did a Southern Chefs Series visit in 2012, he had just been on a dove hunt and brought fresh dove with him. That was my first experience with dove and I loved it—it’s a richer, darker taste than dark meat chicken.

Since then, I’ve been curious about dove hunting, so when the opportunity came up to shoot a  branding video at Serenbe, I asked Chris to participate. A few weeks later he was back at Serenbe, gun in hand, ready to take me on my first dove hunt.

We went to a neighbor’s farm out in the Chattahoochee Hill Country and I held the gun and shot it, but not actually at a dove. Chris shot plenty, dressed them, marinated the breasts in olive oil with fresh thyme, salt and pepper, then cooked them on the grill. He also roasted okra over an open flame in a cast-iron skillet and it was the best okra I’ve ever eaten.

I made sautéed collard greens and spoon bread from the Southern cookbook to end all Southern cookbooks: Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart. I consider Nathalie, who’s coming to do the Southern Chefs Series March 23-24, the second queen of Dixie cuisine, right after my mother, of course.

Classic Spoon Bread
Serves 4
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup fine cornmeal, white, yellow or mixed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 7-inch round casserole or soufflé dish.

Scald the half-and-half in a heavy pan by bringing it almost to a boil, creating tiny bubbles around the outside. Pour a steady stream of cornmeal into the half-and-half, whisking constantly. Continue cooking until it forms a thick mush. Remove the heat and stir in the butter and salt. Let cool slightly.

Beat the egg yolks until pale yellow and stir them into the corn mush.

Whisk the egg whites with a stand mixer until the form stiff peaks. Gently fold the whites into the corn mush.

Pour the corn batter into the prepared dish and bake in the center of the oven for 35 minutes; at this point, feel the top and see if it’s wobbly or runny. If it is, return to the oven until cooked, up to 10 minutes or so longer.

The surface should be puffy and golden brown and resemble a soufflé. Serve hot.