#everybitcountschallenge Day 20 , Part Two August 2022 Sourdough Continued

 

Well this is the rise that greeted me from the Sourdough bread mix, which I was quite pleased about. When I tipped it out of the bowl, it was light and frothy and a lot better than the previous version I made. I had kept a tea towel over the dough at all times, but there did seem to be a "crust" on it which kneaded into the dough.  I am not sure what caused this.

I formed into two loaves (In retrospect I should have weighed them and got as close a weight to each loaf, but I did not do that.  There was a slight difference in the sizes.

After a few hours, the dough has smoothed out a bit and is rising quite nicely.

In retrospect, I should have left it until this morning to let it rise a bit more, but I chose to put it in the ovens.  The first loaf was put in my small oven, but I shall not do this again.  That first loaf was still cooking when I took the second loaf out.  So in future I shall only use the main oven for bread as I was not happy with how it handled the bread.  We live and learn.

I had put a pan in the bottom of each oven which I filled with boiling water to make sure that there was moisture in the air for the bread to cook.

I eventually managed to produce this loaf.  It is not as deep as I wanted it, and so that area is going to need a little research and work on my part.  A friend has sent me some notes to look at and a method of stretching and folding the bread instead of kneading which I am going to have a look at.  Thank you Richard, I think that is going to be very helpful for me.

Here's my loaf in any event.  Far better than the last one, but still some work to do, predominantly with my kneading/stretching and folding.

The crumb seems quite close, and not enough air holes, which I think is down to the kneading that I did.  I did say it would be a Work in Progress as I am not giving in on this one.  At least this attempt has produced a loaf that we can eat and it has a lovely "sour" taste which I understand is indicative with Sourdough and I liked it.  Did not taste it as much in the other attempt I made.

I have the starter in the fridge at the moment, and am going to read and study my friend's method.  Need to sort out the depth though as need to produce a loaf that is deeper than this so we can have sarnies with it.  I have seen where a Sourdough loaf has been put into a Dutch oven.  However I do not have one or anything like that, that I could utilise. I was wondering if a cake pan would help and make the dough rise up instead of spreading out.

In retrospect, I have learned a lot.  It still is not right, but I have something to work with and it was far better than last time.  If only that mixer hadn't of broken!

Another attempt in a couple of days.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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