BBA Basic Sourdough

I think that sometimes we spend too much times looking for the perfect recipe that will give us what we want, a "Magic Bullet".  But in fact the answer is to spend more time reading and rereading those sections the front of the baking books which talk about the techniques.

These mini-baguettes and one boule are made from Reinhart's Basic Sourdough recipe in BBA.  i did the starter on Sunday morning, mixed the dough around noon, let the dough ferment only about two hours (it was hot and our air conditioning is not working), shaped the loaves and retarded them overnight in the refrigerator.  I took them out around six this morning and started baking around 9:45.

There were three mini-baguettes, but I ate one already; it was great.

Colin 

BrownDog posted a test recently that showed there was not much difference between milk that is and is not scalded. But when I bake using scalded or unscalded milk my results are quite different.  Also the folks at King Arthur recommend scalded milk from their experience. So different people get different results from similar techniques.

It is beginning to look as if bread baking is more an art than science and that what works for one person does not work for another.