I've found that the new year means I'm still going up the learning curve on my sourdough loaves. The continued low temperatures here in Kansas combined with above average barometric pressures gave me an opportunity to observe first hand some of the effects of weather on my starter and in the behavior of flours.
I baked three loaves for a Thanksgiving day dinner at my sister-in-law's house in Omaha, Nebraska.It was a case of I'd either be the smart son-in-law or the brother-in-law from Hell depending on how they turned out. I baked my rye Wednesday with the Bauernbrot recipe that Salome posted recently and despite my shortcomings on shaping the loaf, it came out very tasty. It didn't hurt that my mother-in-law got one of the first samples.
Saturday night, my wife and i were invited by our friends across the river in Farley MO to help celebrate the 89th birthday of Rob's mother. We used the opportunity to present a copy of the BBA to their daughter Ryoko as a late birthday/early Christmas gift. She's a junior in high school and really very good in the kitchen. I brought a loaf of a sourdough potato bread that I'm working on as a recipe.
