Good Save!
Wanted to make a Broa de Milho (a traditional Portuguese Corn Bread) the other day. Miscalculated the ingredients and made too much dough. Not enough for another loaf though. What to do? I decided to keep the extra dough and refrigerated it. Next I tried out a new steaming method and what started off as a perfect dough ended up a disaster. All down to the baking. My steaming method went overboard and ended up with a soggy broken loaf. Such a shame and even more so when everything else goes so well and down to this one experiment it all goes wrong. No bread today! Hang on a minute... a lightbulb switched on in my head. What about that extra 200g of dough in the fridge? Within 30 minutes of failure I had another dough going using the dough in the fridge as the starter.
What you see is the best crumb I've gotten out of this particular recipe. All's well that ends well.
Happy Holidays everyone.
That crumb looks nice and moist and open, and I'm sure it tastes great. Good thinking!
So, what steaming method did you try that killed your other bread?
Due to limited means and using a mini tabletop oven, which is too small for a dutch oven, in the beginning I had to resort to using a silicone pouch (lekue) before I brainstormed a good way of introducing steam. Nowadays I do mostly freestanding loaves with great results. Yesterday, however, I decided to try both the silicone pouch (which is a second best to a dutch oven) and my other method for mega steam. The results of which turned the lekue into a moisture collecting bowl. If I would have known I could have saved it by removing the other source of steam and allowing the bread to bake through. Unfortunately I realised too late only after unhooking the clasp upon which the bread fell apart. I think the method I have going is the best I'll get for the oven I have. So either that for a freestanding loaf or the lekue but not both.
Lesson learned!
A lovely loaf indeed. A recipe which I come back to often.
Merry Christmas Ian.