Bread Baking day

Flour, water, salt, yeast. Baking fresh bread is cathartic

The baked loaves. Lunch will be delish!

It has been way too long since I have fired up the sourdough starter to bake bread. Sure, I have multiple times used it to make pizza, but to bake a couple of boules of bread has been too long¹.

Yesterday, I took the day off of work, since we have MOnday off (we do not officially have President’s Day as a holiday, but we have been getting it as a “Day for Me”.

Yay, four day weekend!

So, I dug the starter out of the fridge on Friday and began the process to resuscitate it². By Saturday afternoon, it was SUPER active and bubbly. Yummy-ness is on the menu.

I dug out Ken Forkish’s book, and opened it to the overnight blonde levain³ bread. I grabbed the 12 quart Cambro, my scale, and began mixing it up. The recipes are pretty simple, but the magic is in being consistent. Also, it doesn’t require a lot of gear (like a stand mixer). A wooden spoon, a scale, quality ingredients, and a medium sized cooking pot (this is the secret to that hearty crust on a boule if you don’t have a steam injection oven), rattan baskets for proofing, and that is really all you need.

About 4 PM on Saturday, I did the initial mix and autolyzing of the dough, and about 5 I added the salt and starter and did the manual mixing. About 20 minutes later, I covered it, knowing I needed to do a few folds to help the formation of gluten⁴.

Then it sits overnight to do the initial rise. That will expand it to about two times its size.

About 5 AM on Sunday, I dug out my large wooden cutting board, plenty of flour (to prevent sticking) and began forming two rounds (aka boules). They are now in two well-floured rattan proofing baskets, for about 3-4 hours for the second proof. Between 8 and 9 AM I will be firing up the oven to bake.

Two rounds (boules) in proofing baskets

(it is now 9:43 and the aroma of fresh bread emanating from my oven is HEAVENLY)

10:00AM, it is out of the oven, and on cooling racks.

1. like way over a year

2. This entails a couple of feeding sessions, and magically it is back at full strength. BOOM!

3. Levain is the hipster douche word for sourdough starter

4. Alas, Gluten is blamed for a lot of societal ills, but the truth is it is what makes bread yummy

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