Today I tried Jason's Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta. It was quick and easy as stated. I did do the SD variation to use up some of my starter and found I did have to add another 1/2 cup of flour for it to come together even after 1/2 hour mixing.
With the leftover I did up a pizza dough for supper tonight.
Well we went on holidays and I forgot to take my starter along so I had to live on bread machine bread while we were gone. My starter (Bob) survived the 3 weeks home in the fridge just fine. Today I finally had some free time and what I wanted most was Beer and Cheese SD. I used PR's basic SD recipe and replaced the water with beer and added the cheese after the 1st knead and rest.
I made 4 loaves. We just had to cut into them to go with supper, thus a perfect photo op.
Well, I watched Bobby Flay take on The Elegant Farmer in Mukwanago, WI. in an apple pie throwdown. The Elegant Farmer did his with a sugar cookie crust done in a brown paper bag. I just had to try it. Eating it all ourselves would have been selfish so we had another couple over for dessert on the deck. I'm not artistic and don't try. Here's the pie. It was great.
Well, I've been pressed for time lately, but can't bring myself to buy too much store bread. So I whipped up a couple of SD sandwich loaves. I used a half cup of starter for each loaf plus a 1/2 tsp rapid yeast. The dough had good rise in a couple hours. I then divided and put in pans. Nice rise in the pans, but it fell some putting them into the oven. I misted 3 times in the 1st 10 mins and Now I can make toast and sandwiches once again.
Work has been brutally busy, so bread had to go on the back burner. I did manage to get out some sandwich bread and a couple no-knead SD. The sandwich bread is a little sweet since that's the way I like it and the SD has about 25% WW by weight. I did get a little flour rolled into the SD when I shaped it, but luckily it wasn't too much. The house smelled great today. Dave
I started my firm starter last night. This morning I prepared the dough. I did my first autolyse ( I didn't have a clue what that was before TFL). The boules shaped up ok this afternoon. I think they over proofed a little because I had some deflation when I scored the loaves. Using steam was something I wanted to do so I preheated the oven with my cast iron skillet inside along with my stone. In went the boule onto the stone followed by a cup of boiling water into the skillet. I made use of the parchment tip this time (see, I'm not that slow of a learner).
A quick entry today because I didn't do much. The raisin bread is wonderful and filled the house with that "to die for" smell, but I can't take much credit for it. I had a mound of dough left over from the sticky buns yesterday so I figured I'd just stretch and fold some raisins into it and let er rip. It sat and proofed for another hour and into the oven for 40 mins at 350. I think the neighbors could smell it from the street cuz it's going fast. I just made myself a "moscow mule" and browsed BBA for SD tips. I have a firm starter getting ready for a basic white SD tomorrow.
Hi. Here is a short introduction. I'm one of the newer Dave's on TFL. I'm 56, Canadian and getting ready to retire. I spent my early years in open pit mining and oil field construction work. I spent a couple cold and interesting years in mine construction in the high Arctic. The last 16 years have been spent operating in the pulping and steam side of newsprint production. Now we're waiting for our house to sell in a slowing Alberta economy so we can move to our second home on Vancouver Island.
