Bread Makes The Meal

I'm not feeling totally great this evening, but I wanted to share with you something from Wild Yeast Blog , one of the bread-baking blogs I follow. The recipe is for Sourdough Banana Bread, a combination of two of my favorite breads. Thanks, everyone, for following and (hopefully) telling people about this blog. I really appreciate the love from all of you. Good night, and remember, All sorrows are less with bread .

Nancie has been making the discreet suggestion for a while that I should do something with the sourdough starter or else get rid of it. I eventually decided that I had to agree with her; I really am not using the starter often enough that I can justify taking up the space and the mixing bowl. So tonight I took a couple of final (unfortunately very blurry) pictures: and then washed the bowl out. I haven't given up on sourdough; but I have to be practical: it's not my favorite bread, or Nancie's. On another note, I've been meaning to tell you about the next recipe I'm looking at from the Eliza Acton cookbook I told you about Thursday . I found another recipe for "Good Family Bread". Unfortunately, this one I would have to more than halve before I could bake it manageably. The subheading reads "Sufficient for a week's consumption for ten persons." Presumably that includes the family and the servants. The recipe begins ...

Following Mary's suggestion, I think I'll make one day a week (perhaps chosen randomly or when I feel like it?) Sandwich Day. Today is Buffalo Chicken on Sourdough: I have to admit it's not the greatest picture :-) I used the sourdough I made over the weekend. Remember I talked about how hard the crust was? Well, after getting wrapped in foil and stored for a day or so, it softened up and came out quite nicely. I opened the container and that beautiful sourdough smell came wafting out. Inside was just what I threw together in the three minutes before I had to leave this morning: some of the leftover Buffalo chicken from yesterday, and a little bit of mayo to keep the whole thing from scratching up my throat. Not much in the fancy department, but it satisfied me. (I let Nancie have the pickles; but dill pickles would have gone well with this.) So that's it. It's pouring rain, so I won't have garden pictures to show you tomorrow. Things are...

So the last time I made the sourdough boules they were hard, burned in a couple of places, and generally not very appetizing. So this time around I changed a few things up. I fed the starter a few hours before I made the sponge. I let the sponge develop for about 10 hours (didn't start the bread until almost 8:00 at night). I let the dough rise for an hour and a half, instead of an hour. And (most importantly, I think) I put the temperature at 375 °F instead of 475. (I did worry in the last ten minutes or so that the loaf was very pale, so I put the oven up to 425 for the last ten minutes.) The result: Wow—what a difference. I do have to say, though, that the crust is quite hard in cutting. I did remember the steam pan; I'm not sure what the problem is. It's not breaking my teeth, though. Just hard to cut. But Delicious! Tonight I was going to make rosemary rolls; our next-door neighbor has volunteered her rosemary plants. It's really hot, though,...

I realized that over the weekend I didn't get to stir my sourdough starter—and I missed a feeding. So I was a bit hesitant last night to lift off the (by now very dry) cloth I keep over the starter bowl. I shouldn't have worried. It didn't look particularly different, or smell "off". I took out a cup, added a half cup of flour and half a cup of water, and stirred. This morning, it looked like this: (All those little spots are air bubbles; the picture didn't turn out great.) So the starter is alive and kicking, I'm going to make another couple of boules tonight or tomorrow—and tonight I'm definitely making the Amish white bread. Horror of horrors, we actually had to buy Store White Bread (for $4.50!) last night. So I'll have to do something about that. And as I still can't find the Sally Lunn recipe (but then again, you saw what the desk looks like—it could be anywhere there...) I'm trying not to bake too much bread; we only have so m...

I was really busy last night and didn't get to do any baking. I was very disappointed. But also very tired. I promise I will do some tonight :-) In the mean time, here's a really amazing-looking bread from one of my regular reads. The only thing is, with a 14 to 16 hour ripening time for the sourdough base, I'd have to make this over two (or even three!) days. It will take careful planning. I've also made a decision of sorts. Since, as they say, it's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, I'll be posting the recipes I bake with from now on, with plenty of pictures to go around. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

But I remembered just in time this morning. Feeding every five days, I really ought to write it on the calendar. But it seemed fine this morning. I don't think all the flour broke up when I stirred it; it was a bit lumpy: On another note, I've started looking at bread recipes from a century or more ago; something that I ran into while browsing Google Books. I may share some of these; they look interesting, funny, or both. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Today my stomach was feeling really awful, and everything just felt slightly out of whack. I didn't feel like I could eat much, so most of the morning I nibbled on slices of sourdough boule. (How do you pronounce that, anyway? It looks like it should be pronounce "boole", or maybe "boolay" - but I always want to pronounce it "bowl"; I have no idea why.) Oh man that was good. This loaf was less overdone on the outside and less underdone on the inside. Very dense and chewy with a very close crumb, but totally done. It was really crusty and there was just this flavor about it that (to quote Smith Of Wootton Major ) "reminds me ... of something I've forgotten". It was Excellent! I'm not sure if I'll do the crescent rolls this week; I've been thinking about the Sally Lunn—recipe to follow tomorrow or so. I'll let you know and there will certainly be pictures. And as I'm feeding the sourdough tonight, I may or may n...

It (that is, the Sourdough Boule recipe from Everything Bread ) started off so well. Well, almost "so well". I didn't watch my timing as well as I wanted. Leslie in Everything Bread suggested to let the bread rise for an hour and a half at room temperature "or until the bread doubled in size". So I went off to the community garden for an hour and a half. By the time I got back, the bread had nearly tripled in size, I think! So I punched it down, divided it in two, and rolled it into boules. By that time, we had to go shopping. So I put the two boules on a big plate and put them in the fridge, figuring that would slow things down enough that they'd be about the same size when we got back. No such luck. When we got back about three hours later, the two loaves had grown together and I had quite a time trying to separate them. By the time they were on the baking sheet, one was much bigger than the other, and they were both flat on one side: You might n...

So I've decided - butter top will be the new bread that I'm making (page 22 in Everything Bread ). That will go great for sandwiches, which is a major component of lunch. And it appears that the starter, though thin and watery, may have been intended so. Apparently this is called a "100% hydrated" starter, because the amount of water (now 3 cups) is 100% of the amount of flour. I did the second feeding yesterday evening, and it foamed up really quickly: (I admit to tweaking the picture a bit - the flash reflected off everything and made it bright white. All I did was turn down the brightness a bit so you could see the foam on top.) So I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Or Sunday. Or both—whenever I get to the bread is fine. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Last night, Herself had some of the challah bread. She made a face :-/ like that. It was dry, she said, and she didn't care for the taste. Oh well... I just realized last night that I forgot to put the egg wash on before baking it. No wonder it didn't look right. Today is Day 10 for the starter, time to feed again. It should be ready for sourdough use by now, according to the recipe; so I'm looking forward to this weekend! Assuming the starter works, that is. I'm, well maybe not pessimistic but at least tentatively skeptical. After that? I'm going through the cookbook as I type—maybe the ciabatta (though I'll need to go buy whole wheat flour) or the Italian batard. Some of these recipes call for kosher salt rather than standard table salt. Am I missing something by using table salt? Maybe. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

And without much to say, unfortunately. I'm still following the sourdough starter instructions in Everything Bread , which say to feed every 5 days—it just looks awful thin to me. The challah bread actually turned out quite well. It's a bit dry, though; I had thought the eggs would moisten the dough more. I understand why it has to be made without dairy (to keep kosher, since it's historically been made with meat dishes) but I wonder how that would change it—adding a little more fat to it. But I'm happy with it. I'll come up with an idea for this weekend's bread tonight. Meantime, God speed and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

So I decided to follow my friend Candace's suggestion and make challah bread out of Everything Bread (page 85). There were a couple of differences I had from the recipe. The instructions said to use a cup of all-purpose flour and two or three of bread flour—well, I didn't have any all-purpose flour around; so maybe the bread will be a bit stiffer than the recipe. Then, the recipe suggested that the bread might take two hours to double in size, rising at room temperature. I let it rise for an hour, and then we had to run some errands so I put it in the refrigerator and let it rise until we came back about three hours later. It was doubled by then, so I just let it warm up a bit and proceeded with the rest of the instructions. Only to hit a small snag. The instructions said, "Turn risen dough onto a floured surface," that's okay; "divide into 3 equal portions," I can do that; "and form a 3-strand braid." Umm, grind to a halt here. How do ...

The starter is doing really well (day 6). It was foaming up earlier, and I stirred it once. It seems to have gone very liquid; I'm not sure that's right, it had a much thicker consistency yesterday. I usually bake bread on Sundays, but today we had a little bit of a party - an early Independence Day party, more or less. So tomorrow I'll be baking, and I was looking over things I haven't done from the Everything Bread cookbook. Butter Top? Farmhouse White? Honey White? Hawaiian Bread? I'm not sure how much butter we have in the house - if I get desperate (and only if I get desperate) I could substitute margarine; but I'd rather walk down to the store, if it's open. What's your preferred sandwich or toasting bread? Anything special? God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

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 .

Today is the last day of just stirring the sourdough starter; tomorrow, according to the recipe, I need to start feeding it. I was going to take a picture when I stirred the starter tonight, but I have to say it looked exactly the same as it did yesterday. At this point I'm just wondering if it's going to change significantly - I want it to be ready so I can actually start baking with it! That bread I made yesterday is delicious with butter as a dessert; but I'm going to have to try the recipe as printed. Definitely. Or, I could try the cinnamon-raisin loaf. Herself loves cinnamon-raisin bread. Me, I'll be picking out the raisins. But it would be fun to make. That's all for tonight, I think; I started this post really late and my mind is falling asleep. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Well, Mobius' suggestion for a cinnamon raisin bread sounded like a great idea. I have a few different recipes. I was going to take the Everything Bread recipe and alter it enough that I could list it out here without worrying about copyright violation. Unfortunately, that was under the assumption that the alterations would keep the recipe decent enough for it to be worth listing. So here's what went down: I didn't have raisins, so I found the "Cinnamon Swirl" recipe rather than the "Cinnamon Raisin" recipe. Not a problem. It called for honey, and Herself was using the honey at work, for her tea, so we didn't have it. Not a problem, I thought, for honey I can just use white sugar, right? I now think that was a mistake. Then, there were instructions to add two eggs with the flour after proofing the yeast. I'm still not sure what eggs do for the dough, but for better or for worse I decided to leave them out. Next, the instructions said to...

Well, I would have posted something last night, but I was feeling pretty ill, and Herself ... let's say gently suggested ... that I call it a night. Today I'm staying home, so here's yesterday's entry. Everything Bread says, "Stir [the sourdough starter] once a day for the next three days." So yesterday, I stirred it the once. It was bubbly and gloppy, just what it's supposed to be. I came out to check on it this morning and saw this: Or in close-up: Which I think is exactly how it's supposed to look at that stage. So I'm happy. (Note: I hope the picture quality is improved; I'm taking pictures with the actual camera rather than with my phone camera.) We're just about out of sandwich bread (the Amish White from Everything Bread ). But on the other hand if I had made two loaves, one would be hanging around forever in the freezer. I just go ahead and make it every week anyway. I might make the biscuits again as well, or maybe use my...

So I made my starter after dinner. What I like about Everything Bread is that it gets really detailed, even with long-term recipes like a sourdough starter: Mix this, do this on the next that many days, take out so much and use it for pancakes or something ... she's really good. With something I've never done before, that style of writing gives me a lot of confidence. This isn't, strictly, a "make it from scratch" one that kind of waits to pick up whatever yeast spores might be floating in the air. I used a cup of flour, a cup of water, and an eighth of a teaspoon of baking yeast. It looks bland now: but I'm sure over the next week we'll see interesting developments! Herself is a bit skeptical, but willing to let me work with this as long as (a) it doesn't get in the way (it won't) and (b) the cats won't get into it (ha!). She's going to love the rye bread. So am I, I hope. I got a promise from my mom this evening - she's going t...

Herself and I were out from 7:00 AM until after 9:00 PM yesterday, and when we got home I was way too exhausted to write anything. Apologies. I'm not sure I like The Complete Book Of Bread & Bread Machines , the cookbook that my neighbor gave me the other day. It's got lots of pretty pictures in it, but there are two big faults: Although it gives recipes for bread made from sourdough starters, it doesn't tell you how to keep the starter going. Surely that's the point of having a starter? It has a lot of descriptions of traditional regional breads, but It Doesn't Give All The Recipes . What's with that?? So instead, I'm going back to the Bilderback. Everything Bread has a good-looking sourdough starter recipe, and a rye bread made with it. In keeping with the best sourdough blogs :-) I'll post pictures as the starter develops. According to the recipe, the starter takes about two weeks to develop; but don't worry—I'll be baking (and pos...