For my birthday, I requested some items to help my sourdough bread endeavour including a dutch oven from Jbird, a bread knife from my sister, and my very own copy of Tartine Bread from Alana. I totally recommend this book if you want to start baking country bread like a true baker.
Since my last disgruntled post, I've been developing another sourdough starter. I made this one from the powdered yeast again. I figure I will work with that until I can get a natural starter working. This morning I baked my very first loaf in the dutch oven and it turned out delicious. With a dutch oven, I keep the lid on for half of the baking which allows the loaf to rise in its own steam. This, along with the heat conducted by the cast iron, replicates a baker's hydrated oven. After about 20 minutes baking time, the lid is taken off to create the delicious crust. I wanted to make sure the starter was working so I made a plan white loaf but I will return to trying to perfect my whole wheat loaf next time.
What do you think? See the large holes in the crumb? I should have left it in longer but I had a student here when I was taking it out so I couldn't think about it. Jbird and I have already demolished nearly half of this loaf.
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