Swirly Whirly SJSD

A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.

Rumi - The Secret Turning

And so it came to pass that I ended up on "gardening leave" from my job, waiting for a release date so that I could start my new job.  It was, in fact, "baking leave" but only a handful of my colleagues understood this!!  On my first day home, as I tried to read through the overnight posts on TFL while recovering some sort of humanity via a cup of coffee, The Husband was wandering around the house in his sports kit, minus a sock, frantically looking for said sock, as one does.  I take comfort in the hope that I am not alone and that somewhere, out there, live many happy ladies whose beloveds run around looking in kitchen cabinets for a missing sock.  I have also wondered whether, perhaps, my parents pay The Husband a monthly stipend to do things like this.  Maybe he even has a blog somewhere called "Inexplicable Oddities and Bizarre Behaviours I have invented to drive my wife nuts".  Having duly ascertained that no stray socks lurked in our kitchen (cabinets or elsewhere), he stopped to ask me whether I really planned to spend my entire time off work making bread.   Hearing the answer, he nods briefly and says "OK.  Have you considered that you may need some form of counselling when you pick up your new job, I am worried about the withdrawal symptoms when you have to sit at your desk instead of baking…..".   It was too early for a glass of wine, so I gave him That Look and had another coffee.

I loved the SJSD so much, I wanted to try again.  Between the odd calls from "old work" and from "new work", mainly trying to find out what my news was, I pulled out my large mixing bowl and flour and set to it.  At this point, Mother calls.  After establishing that I am not at work, she offers up: "I hope you're not going to spend the whole time making bread!"  In lieu of an answer, I ask if she has been paying The Husband to do weird stuff around the house.  Silence.  More silence.  "Do you want to speak to your father?" she says.   And so, on with the SJSD.

A few small changes in the formula below, what with the Great Sock Palaver, I was distracted and added 50g each of rye and whole wheat, as opposed to 25g each.  As a result, I winged it a bit and added some more water to a total of 390g.  I also didn't have 100%n hydration levain to hand, so used the 80% hydration I had ready.

Bread Flour  450g
Rye  50g
Whole Wheat  50g
Water  390g
Salt 12g
Levain 150g (80% hydration, 50% bread flour, 50% whole wheat, 8hrs build)

1. Autolyse all flour and 350g water, 2hrs
2. Mix 40g water, 12g salt and 150g Levain
3. S&F 4 times at 30min. intervals, total time on counter is 3.5hrs
4. Cold Bulk Ferment - set in fridge for 22hrs
5. Preshape and bench rest for 20min
6. Shape and proof for a wee snippet over 1hr
7. Bake in DO, oven at 250C for 20min then reduce temp to 230C and remove lid at 25mins and continue to bake for another 15-20min

I got my courage together and decided to try for a swirly whirly scoring pattern, which led me to think of whirling and dervishes and therefore Rumi again, hence the turning poem.  This one was slightly more sour than my first attempt at SJSD, and again a delicious "universal" bread.  As expected, it passes The Husband test, and is declared to be tastier because it has a bit more tang.  He was terribly nice all evening, there was no mention of socks and he even offered to wash the dishes.   He got a little reward by way of a stray sock (discovered in the sock drawer, of all places), rolled up and tied with a big red ribbon, on his pillow.   

The lover's food is the love of the bread;
no bread need be at hand:
no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.

Rumi - The Interest without The Capital