Sourdough Day 5: First Feeding

Very simple, the instructions were "Add one cup of flour and one cup of water; stir until mixed." I'm going to wind up with a lot of starter.

Bought some more bread flour (Gold Medal; I just can't see springing $4.99 for the King Arthur) and sugar (which I then spilled half over the stove as I was filling the canister). The Amish White that I make for sandwich bread takes a lot of sugar; 1/3 cup per loaf. I love it, though. Probably my favorite sandwich bread - and Herself can't get enough.

A friend of mine, an English professor, found out I bake. He suggested a story called A Small Good Thing, by Raymond Carver. It's a very sad story; very heavy. Kind of like the bread that's mentioned in the end. "It had the taste of molasses and coarse grains." I'd like to make a bread like that.

God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread.

Comments

The Consistency Of Coarse Meal

I decided to make biscuits this afternoon, and as I was following the recipe, I saw that I needed to mix flour, salt, and baking powder, then cut in shortening (butter is better than mar but marge is what we had). The recipe said to cut the shortening in "to the consistency of coarse meal." Now what the heck is that supposed to mean? I mean, I know what (for example) corn meal looks like; but does the casual baker? How are they supposed to know? It means this. Not that you'd go far wrong with these biscuits, anyway. I mean, it's the Pillsbury cookbook. The only problem I had is that, at some time in the past, I put a note in to myself to use 3 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder instead of the recipe's 2. Well, I'm marking that back down. These are edible, but definitely taste of baking powder. Oh well, live and relearn, I guess. The finished product. Yum! Godspeed, and remember, All things are better with bread .

Tomorrow's Bread: Sally Lunn?

Although we watched an episode of Chopped last night in which one of the mandatory ingredients for a dish was barley flour—but I don't think I've seen barley flour before. It was described as having essentially no gluten; maybe I could make a flatbread out of it? Assuming of course that I could find some. (Apparently, Bob's Red Mill has some, but I've never seen it at ShopRite, Acme, Stop'n'Shop, or even Wegman's. Now, on to Sally Lunn. Wikipedia speaks of it as referring to a kind of bun . The recipe I got from Mama is for a loaf. And the article says it's "often lightly scented with lemon." Are we talking about the same thing? I think not. Mrs. Acton's English Bread Book from 1857 mentions "Flour, 1 lb. [about 2½ cups]; butter, 3 oz.; pounded sugar, 3 oz.; German yeast, full ounce; [let rise] 2 to 3 hours, or until extremely light. Flour, in addition, one pound; to stand in tins until risen to their edges." It allo...

Quick Bread Is Not So Quick

I decided I didn't have the time late tonight to do a rising bread, and then spent about an hour looking for a recipe for Irish soda bread, before Herself reminded me that we had got one from a family friend. I'll comment on how I did in the recipe itself. Irish Soda Bread 4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup raisins (optional – I don't use them) 1½ cup buttermilk (see below) Okay, so first of all, about the buttermilk. I knew we had some. What I didn't realize was that it was about three weeks past date. So I opened it up to smell it. It smelled fine, but it was the consistency of yogurt—and smelled a bit like yogurt, too. It wouldn't pour out of the container, either; so I added about half a cup of regular milk just to get it liquid again. It seemed to work, and it looked and smelled fine. Now, on to the instructions: Mix all ingredients and knead into a ball. Hmm. That doesn't look much like a ball. Let's try a bit more milk?...

Bread Makes The Meal

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