Tuesday, January 10, 2012

True Story of Bread

Yesterday morning we were out of bread! I started a two loaf sourdough batch that was so simple:
I used six to seven cups of medium grind whole wheat flour, one tablespoon of kosher salt, and three cups of water and a cup of my sourdough starter. I mixed everything in a bowl with a wooden spoon, covered it with a wooden cutting board, and set it in the boiler room on top of the huge metal boiler box, out of reach of the cat. By nightfall it had risen and had become glutinous. I brought it upstairs to my kitchen and punched it down and mixed it with my hands pulling it out of the bowl in one swoop like a magician's white rabbit trick and divided it in two. I shaped it placing it in two standard greased loaf pans. I then set it to rise in the ice cold kitchen overnight covered with a dish towel. I baked it this morning in a preheated 450 F oven temp for 35-40 minutes. The loaves were done when they sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom.

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