What happens when your must have bread fails repeatedly? Other than tears and recriminations, a lot of head scratching and experimentation. This generally leads to upping your game at all levels as you optimize each step of the process, but unfortunately the main problem can remain hidden.
Almost went for another round of the sesame semolina batards, having promised one to my cousin just the other day. But suddenly had an itching to bake my take on his Country Blonde. These are not the same as in FWSY.
Lucy was going to come up with a sprouted ciabatta sandwich thins this week but after a shopping trip to Sprouts where she got some dried figs and olives, that ciabatta went in the trash like a stinky pair of old slippers.
This is an interesting bread made with both roasted sweet potatoes and roasted purple and red potatoes. I used freshly milled whole Durum flour along with some fresh milled whole wheat and a nice helping of olive oil.
The end result was a tasty bread with a nice sour tang. Of course the addition of the cheese didn't hurt either.
Teresa Greenway has a recipe for "Extra Sour Sourdough" in her e-book "Discovering Sourdough: Part II Intermediate Sourdough". So I thought I would give it a try.
The process of making this loaf moved me from a sense of worry and frustration at the low point to a state of surprise and wonder at the finish. I baked the rice porridge loaf from Tartine 3 this week (25% whole wheat, sourdough, brown rice).
Schedule:
A simple white sourdough. Add 170 g coarsely grated beetroot. Three folds and risen in the fridge overnight, as always. The aroma and taste of the beetroot is subtle, but definitely there. And look at the colour of the dough, just gorgeous!
Dry mix:
370 g bread flour, 8 g salt, I added 3 tablespoons rye flour because I thought the dough was a bit too wet.
Wet mix:
Hi everyone in TFL land, I haven't posted in quite some time, but I have been baking as much as ever and am including some pics from the last few months. I hope to start posting more frequently and will include my formulas for wharever turns out well. All of my formulas are naturally leavened only and use organic ingrediants whenever possible. Thanks everyone, I look forward to catching up with what everyone has been baking.
July is the hottest month of the year in Fresno. For the past couple years, since I retired from practice, we have tried to get to cooler areas for as much of the month as possible. Being away from home more than usual, I do less baking than usual in July.
My baking for the first half of July has had an Italian theme.
In a recent blog about Lessons in Baking I ended by stating “perhaps that is the most important lesson of the day – that with practice and sticking to plan, one can duplicate over and over again what they create.”
