Sugarowl's blog

I'm still baking somewhat, still struggling with energy levels, and more blood work is due (I hate needles).  As a mom of two active boys, I find myself alternating between cooking mac and cheese, homeschooling, and lots of "stop bugging your brother" moments. Thank goodness for coffee!

I had neglected my starter for a month or two (maybe 3?). I pulled it out the other day and it was NOT moldy! :) I took a small part of it that hadn't gone grey and now I  have about 150g in the fridge waiting anticipating a small loaf bake soon.

I did the Infinity loaf challengeon October 30, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. I did not really like how the bread came out. It was very crumbly and a bit sandy. That said, I'm not really partial to cornbread either.

The "other" flours I used were rye, oat flour, and corn meal. For seeds, I used soaked bulgur wheat and toasted pecan pieces. The inclusions were fine. I'm not so sure about the cornmeal and oat flour though. I'll try it again after the holidays. And soak the cornmeal next time.

So I made a loaf of bread last week. I think I really need to knead longer and/or ferment longer. My starter seems to rise just fine, but even after several hours, the bread itself doesn't rise as much as with commercial yeast. My house is 76F. I would put it outside but our screens are torn and the squirrels would chomp on it.

For today's bake, I'm trying out a multigrain loaf for a possible upcoming community bake.

134g Bread Flour (25g in starter)

133g Whole Wheat Flour (25g in starter)

13g Rye flour

60g Oat Flour

60g Cornmeal

I attempted to make pizza with King Arthur 00 Pizza flour using their recipe on the back of the bag. The recipe was called "Detroit Style Pizza". I have no idea what that is but I had hoped it would make 1-12" pizza if I halved the recipe. It did not. Also, this was my first attempt at homemade pizza dough. It is not pretty and way too crispy. But for better or for worse here it is.

So I started 2023 with a bang, on the side of my loaf that is. I have made about 5 loaves this year and all have proofing and kneading issues (and shaping). I even forgot the yeast in my steamed buns! My goal is to get better at timing (and organizing!) my sourdough bakes. What worked out for me last year or the year before doesn't seem to work out right now. With kids, everything is always changing as they get older (at least I don't have to move the crayons up to a higher shelf anymore). I have learned from every bake at least.

I recently baked the Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread by King Arthur. It was a delicious flop. It tore horribly during kneading even with lots of resting time. I subbed oat flour for the rolled oats, so I essentially lowered the gluten and possibly the water as well. It also didn't call for an autolyse for the whole wheat portion. I had previously used Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat on here and didn't have those issues.

I made the Walter Sands white bread from King Arthur in October and tried doing a swirl. I rolled my dough a wee bit too thin in the middle, but it was offset by having a pocket of sugar peeking out at the end. It was gone in 3 days. The only problem I had was that the swirl kept separating from the bread. It was not fun to pull it out of the toaster.

Not much to say, except I'm re hydrating my 2g of dried starter from 3(?) years ago. I've been feeling better and store bought bread prices have been going up. Almost $4 a loaf here for the basic stuff. I've got bubbles in my tiny starter which is half rye and half whole wheat. If anyone remembers, I was having water problems when trying to get it going the first time. So far I have only been using filtered water and no bottled, so my fingers are crossed this stays alive (it's hurricane season and people panic buy the bottled stuff).

So my rye starter from almost 2 years ago is going strong. I did a 1:2:2 feeding and it doubled in 6 hours so I decided to bake a 1-2-3 loaf with it. The dough was super sticky, like octopus sticky (https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/60884/sticky-shaping-sticky-dough-or-when-it-too-sticky). I first tried wetting my hands, but that only worked a little bit, so then I had to just use flour, about 1/4 of a cup and it still stuck (like chewing gum, #3 on the link) to my Silpat.

Revisiting The Approachable Loaf from the 2020 Community Bake- part 3

(Link here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab)

I tried the loaf again. The kids were at school/daycare so I could pay a bit more attention to the dough. I wish I had taken pictures of the process, then you all could tell me if the dough was done. Next time!