Hi Everyone,
It's 1:25 AM, early Monday morning, and I just sent off the manuscript to the publisher. It will now go into various stages of editing, but our work here carries on. We will continue to test and make tweaks until the last possible moment, still months away. Right after I sent it in, two testers wrote that they noticed the volume measure was wrong in the sandwich rye bread (should be 1 3/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons instead of 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons). There will be more like this, I'm sure. Another tester suggested that when making the pockets for filling in the Danish, to dip your thumb in water first to keep the dough from sticking--I do that myself but never thought to put it in the instructions. That's why I need all of you, so, thank you again for all the amazing work you've done. There's no way I could have made this deadline without all the constructive feedback you provided.
By the way, for those of you original testers from wayback in October, out of 350 or so who originally signed up, only about 35 are still standing (this process can wear out even the best of intentioned volunteers). We also have about 50 of the second wave testers still contributing. Any of you who dropped out for whatever reason are always welcome to jump back in. Also, I've received about 50 requests from those who missed the last cut-off and I promise to re-open the list for you in mid-March, after I return from San Francisco where I will be doing the photo shoot with out Ten Speed Press art department and our photographer, Leo Gong (www.leogong.com ) It will be an intense week and, by then, we should have some modifications in the instructions and I will need fresh eyes and hands to test the revisions. Till then, we continue to fine tune the recipes.
One final note, one of our testers sent me this link tonight for bread shaping videos. This is perfect for those testers (and anyone) who would like visual demonstrations of all sorts of shaping techniques: http://thebackhomebakery.com/Tutorials.html Let me know what you think. The little that I saw was impressive.
Okay, I can honestly I am looking forward to a good night's sleep.
May your bread always rise!
Peter
