Ears! | The Fresh Loaf

For the first time in my entire baking life I got ears!!! OK, they aren't the most elegant ears I have ever seen, but for me this was a big deal. I made Susan's Norwich Sourdough loaves and nearly ruined the dough by trying to knead in kosher salt by hand. Had to do some extra kneading and stretching and folding to get the dough to what I thought it should be, and eventually it was a delight to work with. So my four dear little loaves weren't picture perfect but to me they are beautiful. Made pizza with some of the leftover dough, and also baked a fine steelcut oats version of the NKB. A happy baking day, A

AnnieT's Blog
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Annie, I'm so glad you had success with his bread! (I can't take credit for the recipe, it's Hamelman's VT Sourdough with just a few very minor modifications made by me.)

I'm still hoping for photos someday soon. The amount of baking you've been doing is really impressive.

Susanfnp

http://www.wildyeastblog.com

Susan, now I look at your pictures I think I could have let my loaves proof longer. I am so scared of overproofing and I had to really make myself slash deeply - with fingers crossed that I wasn't going to deflate the little dears. Then I console myself with the thought that there is always next time. I have about given up on the pictures, unless I can get some help from my way too busy family. Thanks for the encouraging words, A

Susan, I made the bread again and the dough was quite different - I am convinced it was because I used KA flour this time. My store was out of it recently and I reluctantly bought another brand. Could have been the improvement in the weather, or the sourdough fairies were with me, who knows? Anyway, my loaves were larger and rose like champs. I did a bread delivery to some of my neighbors - I live in a senior (geezer) park and this way I can have the fun of baking and hopefully learn a lot. I'm not supposed to eat much bread so we are all happy. A

KA flour is higher in protein than most other brands, so the flour probably did make a difference. I'm glad you were happy with the results!

Having bread to give away is one of the great rewards of baking, I think.

As far as the photos go, one thing I found was that I had trouble trying to upload a photo that was too big; could that be your problem? If you're working on a Mac I may be able to give you more specifics on how to do it.

Susanfnp

http://www.wildyeastblog.com