Favourite Day

Day 338: Today is my favourite day of the week. It could be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday and not make a speck of difference. What signifies is that it's Bread Day! Sourdough most frequently is the guest of honour, and today is no exception. It's my go-to bread. I fed the starter yesterday, set the poolish to proof overnight, and this morning started the loaf. The oven is heating up even as I type, and soon the house will be filled with the scent of baking bread. Is there any better smell in the whole wide world? Not in my book! And does anything taste better than homemade bread, freshly and lavishly buttered? I think not. Keep your fancy-schmancy gourmet meals, and just give me the rustic goodness of homemade bread.

Comfort Food

Day 146: I will not hear argument to the contrary: there is no better comfort food in the world than homemade bread. I say that even though making bread has been part of my normal routine for over fifty years, and is something I don't really even think about, other than, "Oh, I need to make bread" when I see that I'm down to the last half loaf. The aroma of bread in the oven is uplifting. It challenges the deepest gloom. The promise of a hot, fresh slice slathered with butter defies any cookbook which warns the baker not to cut into a loaf until it is fully cool. Get that heel while it's soft! This week, I've made bread twice (cinnamon and sourdough), which speaks loudly of my current world-view. If I should swell up and bust from eating too much homemade bread, what better way to go?

Turning Over A New Loaf

Day 221: It's almost impossible to kill a sourdough starter, but between refrigerator failure and stress overload which compelled me to make quicker breads, my starter died. Or at least I thought it did, which is one and the same thing because I threw it out. Maybe there was something else going on. I'm not sure. In any case, I was unable to make sourdough for several months until my weaving friend Ed gave me a fresh start; literally, as in "half a cup." It needed to be bulked up before there was enough to make my usual recipe, but it turned out a nicely tangy loaf, although the rise could have been better. I settled down with YouTube in the hopes of finding some clue as to the reason, and in so doing, I discovered the enchanting subject of making bread in a Dutch oven. The technique is particularly suited to sourdough.

These days, anyone who has a camera and the ability to process videos can make themselves sound like they know their business. There are a lot of people on YouTube who do not. After watching any number of self-proclaimed experts, I turned to my favourite British chef for a workable recipe. John Kirkwood's instructions are clear, simple and virtually idiot-proof, as my first Dutch oven loaf proves. I did make a few minor adaptations, the first being that he did not allow for saving any of the sponge for a subsequent loaf. I fed my starter a couple of days ahead to be sure I had enough in reserve after removing the amount called for in his recipe. The second alteration I made was that I dumped the final proof out of the banneton onto a sheet of parchment paper which I then lifted into the hot Dutch oven rather than turning it directly into the pot. Otherwise, I followed his instructions exactly. The crust was a little less crisp than I'd expected, so next time, I will raise the oven temp from his recommendation of 430° F to 450° F, and will pre-heat the Dutch oven for 45 minutes instead of 30. Those changes are noted in the recipe below.

Sponge
100 g starter
100 g water
100 g bread flour

Dough
460 g bread flour
230 g water
1 Tbsp veg oil
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)

Feed starter 1:1:1 two days before Baking Day.

From the newly fed starter, make sponge the night before (at least six hours). No sponge will be returned to the starter jar.

Using the 300 g sponge, add water and mix well. Add oil and mix well. Add all the flour and the salt. Mix well. Dough will be wet at first, then may seem too dry. DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR OR WATER. Cover and proof for 45 minutes. Pour dough out onto work surface and do a few rounds of stretch-and-fold. Wet your hands to keep the dough from sticking to them. Cover and proof for an additional 45 minutes.

Coat banneton with rice flour. This is how the dough is shaped for transferring to the Dutch oven. Alternately, if you want to dust some seeds on the surface of the bread, use a round-bottomed pan which has been greased with a little butter and oil instead of a banneton. Sprinkle seeds into pan.

Do another quick stretch-and-fold. Shape the loaf gently into a round ball, smooth on top. Transfer to the banneton/pan with the smooth side down. Dust lightly with flour and cover. Let rise for another hour. Fifteen minutes in, start preheating the Dutch oven in a 450 degree oven. It will be nice and hot at the end of the 1-hour rise period.

When the final rise is complete, tip the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and place into the HOT Dutch oven. Slash the loaf if desired. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional three to five minutes to brown the surface.

Let This Be A Lesson

Day 219: Let this be a lesson to you...or in my case, a reminder of something I had forgotten from fifty years ago: flour matters. A month or so ago, I inadvertently ran out of flour. When I pulled out what should have been a new bag, it turned out to be sugar instead. Suffice to say that this put me in a panic because it was almost Bread Day, and there wasn't enough in the countertop canister for a loaf. I checked my grocery store on line and was surprised to see that they were out of Gold Medal, the only brand of bread flour I've used in half a century. I looked at two other stores. They were also out, so I went back to my usual store and ordered their house brand. When Bread Day arrived, I used a combination of what was left in the canister and the new flour, and thought that my loaf was a little slow to rise. The next time I made bread, the slow rise was undeniable. A subsequent loaf was also slow to rise and the texture was dense...like my head, which hadn't made the obvious connection yet. Instead, I assumed my sourdough start had lost some of its potency, so I strengthened it over a period of several days with feedings. When I made the sponge for my next loaf, it behaved properly in the early stages, but again, the loaf was reluctant and heavy. By now, I had gone through most of the five-pound bag of house-brand flour and was on the verge of buying another one because I was again having trouble locating Gold Medal bread flour at any of the stores near me. At some point in my search, the little lightbulb in my brain came on. It was the flour's fault! I persisted in my search for Gold Medal until I found it, bought the few bags the store had in stock, and made a perfect loaf after consigning the remainder of the house brand to cookies.

As Goes The Loaf

Day 81: You have only one chance to get this right: "As goes the loaf, so goes the year." Although I was unable to document the saying, I believe it is of Scottish or British origin, and asserts that the first loaf of bread baked after New Year's Day predicts the course the year will follow. Will it be lumpy? Crusty and hard? Will it fail to rise entirely? I wasn't willing to take any chances, and fell back on my tried-and-true sourdough, changed up a bit with half a cup of whole-wheat flour to replace an equivalent measure of white, along with an appreciable handful of golden flaxseed to add character. I don't want 2021 to be plain or boring, and neither do I want it to be ponderously heavy or tasteless. The whole wheat offers a mild piquancy, gives it a hint of down-home, neighbourly goodness and the seeds provide small and tasty surprises. No one wants peppercorns and pea gravel in their breakfast toast, and that was certainly the fare offered up by 2020. I was pleased when the loaf emerged from the oven without cracks, rifts or fissures, perfectly golden-brown and raised to a perfect crown.

Bread Day

Day 16: My grandmother was the needleworker in my family, but my mother occasionally did embroidery or knitting, and during the Fabulous Fifties, "days of the week" kitchen towels were very popular. She stitched a set with vegetable characters involved in various household chores: dusting, laundry, and even making bread. Although the towels were labelled "Monday," "Tuesday," etc., and one scene in which the vegetables were engaged in making bread. I always thought of it as "Bread Day." When I set up housekeeping on my own at age 18, my mother outfitted me with some essentials like sauce pans, cooking utensils, flatware and dishes, and the "Bread Day" towel was among the hand-me-downs. I used it as a dish towel for several years, but when I started baking my own bread, it seemed the logical candidate to toss over the rising loaves. Put to such a use, it became known as my "bread rag," and not being subjected to the harsher wear of drying dishes, it survived (albeit somewhat holey) until just a few years ago when I finally tossed it out. Today, I still use cotton dish towels to protect my loaves from drafts, and when I give bread as a gift, I wrap it with one. Memory being what it is, I do not recall which day of the week had been appointed "Bread Day," but it's a moot point. "Bread Day" happens roughly every 10 days around here.

Sourdough Uprising

Day 216: No, it's not the Gold Rush, but there's a sourdough uprising! It's been a while since I made bread the old-fashioned way, kneading it by hand. The convenience of a bread machine has spoiled me, but recently, I got a hankering for genuine sourdough, the kind where the recipe says, "Do not use metal utensils or bowls." I was hampered by not having a sourdough start, so obtained one from a friend's daughter and promptly killed it, having forgotten all about the "no metal" rule. Resolving to do better next time, I set out on a starter hunt. Through the medium of the Eatonville Community Co-op, I got in touch with a confessed "sourdough enabler" who provided me with a start which had come to her through a man who had originally obtained it in...sit down...South Africa! Irene the Enabler had been using hers for about 15 years. That said, the sample she gave me was small, not enough for even a single loaf by my recipe. Over three or four days, I doubled it twice until I had the requisite cup and a half (with leftovers for replenishing). Today, I turned out the loaf, and oh, it smells divine! Plus, I'd forgotten how rewarding it is to feel the dough develop and mature under your hands in the kneading process. Sourdough is back!

A quick-and-cheaty sourdough bread can be made using commercial yeast, but the Real Thing uses only a starter for leavening. Fyrst, obtaine ye an starte, for no oother meanes will provyde a guid loaf ("fyrst catch ye an hare" to make "jugged hare").

To make the "sponge":
1 cup of starter, stirred (from refrigerated storage)
2/12 cups white flour
2 cups 85-90° water

Put the starter in a large bowl (4 quart), add the water and stir until smooth. Gradually add the flour and stir until all lumps disappear (about 5 minutes). Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for 12-24 hours. Stir down any crust or liquid which has separated during this process. Return at least 1 cup of the "sponge" to the starter crock, and put it back in the refrigerator. You should have 3 cups of "sponge" left. Now you're ready to make bread!

To make sourdough white bread:
3 cups of "sponge"
6 1/2 cups of white flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 cup milk, warmed to 85-90°
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. salt

Warm the milk, add salt and butter, and stir until butter is melted. Put 3 cups of "sponge" in a large bowl and stir in 1 cup of flour. Add sugar, stir; then add the milk. Stir thoroughly, and then begin mixing in flour 1/2 cup at a time. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, turn it out on a lightly floured board and begin kneading. You should knead for at least 10 minutes, adding more flour as required to keep the dough from sticking to the board. Be careful not to add too much flour! You want the dough to be smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a greased bowl (4 quart) and turn the dough once so that it is lightly greased on all sides. This will prevent it forming a dry crust. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set it in a warm location. Allow it to rise for two hours. Punch it down (a five-second knead), and then allow it to raise for another half hour.

Next, punch it down again and form it into 2 oblong loaves or divide the dough and place it in two standard loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a cloth and allow them to raise for an additional 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes, or until the loaves make a "hollow" sound when tapped with a fingernail. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Brush the tops with butter to make a softer crust.

NB: Your starter will keep for years if you replenish it every couple of weeks. If you're not planning to bake bread for a while, just add a little sugar and stir it in. Starter should be replenished with new "sponge" at least once a month.