Floydm's blog
Hmmm... yes, well... baking on the road seemed like a good idea.
My starter made it fine, but I guess I didn't really think about how many little things I take for granted in my home kitchen. Yes, I knew I was going to be without a baking stone or my lame, but those were the least of my problems. Not being able to find a warm enough spot in the house for the loaves to rise enough set me back a bit.
Baking on the road
We're housesitting for my parents up on Puget Sound for the next few days. Before leaving, I fed the pets, watered the plants, and, of course, fed the starter. While doing so it dawned on me that I could take a pinch along and try baking something up here; homemade sourdough would go great with the fresh seafood (like the clams we picked up on the way up). I figure if the pioneers could keep a starter culture alive for weeks on a wagon train, I could keep one alive for four hours on the interstate, eh?
It'll be interesting to bake in another kitchen.
In praise of white bread
Tonight I baked white bread.
Nothing artisan or fancy about this, just good, simple home cooking. The kind of bread you eat right out of the oven.
I fudged the recipe. It was basically:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup very warm milk
2 tablespoons melter butter
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sunday baking
I have a batch of the revised no-knead bread about to go into the oven, with about 10 percent whole wheat flour and 5 percent rye. I've also got a whole wheat sourdough rising.
While letting the dough rise, I was sorting through potential bread feed content and came across this site. Um... well... wow.
Comparing in the pot to old school
I baked another batch of sourdough today using my normal method (extra hot oven, steam in an iron pan, pre-heated baking stone).
Trying the NY Times technique
So I set out today to try the new technique that we've been discussing from the New York Times article. I created a dough like what he described the night before and gave it an 18 hour rise.