Sourdough Story

 Making sourdough bread is not a fast thing.  One measures the flours, heats the water, mixes them together and then let's the wheat soak up the moisture and chemical reactions to begin.  This site from King Author - really the King of bread making - tells all about this technique. What the Heck is Autolayse?  I have yet to hone in on how long I let my flour sit.  I need to make a better effort here. 

While this is happening, salt and sourdough starter are measured out.  I use a kitchen scale and I weigh in grams.  The bread made last nigh and pictured below gets 40 grams of salt for 1000 g flour mix.  I add a big gooey 500 grams of  starter to this 4 loaf recipe.   The water added above measures 1500 grams. 

After the initial autolayse phase (hah!  That rhymes!), the salt, starter and other ingredients are added in and mixed by hand.  The loaf below got 4 bunches of scallions chopped up, 2 cups of cheddar cheese, and 8-10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced.  Mixing is the fun part.  And then the dough, once mixed, is folded.  Up and over, around and around.  I do this a couple of times and then cover the giant blob of dough with a plastic cover. 

The living thing sits overnight.  In the morning, it has risen an impressive two-fold.  Bubbles are scattered about.  When they burst, the mass moves like it's alive.  Well, it is!  The giant blob is gently moved from the bowl to my work surface where I divide it into four, round the loaves, and set them in a Banneton Bowl cover with a wet cloth covering, and stuff them in the fridg for another long ferment.  Overnight, all afternoon....kind of depends on the day! 

Having my sense of smell back is extremely enjoyable while baking bread!  This loaf smells of hot scallions, poignant garlic and baked bread.  Cut into the hot loaf and enjoy the flavors which are a perfect match for the sourdough flavor.  

 I have been baking a dozen or more loaves of sourdough bread a week.  Found a great place to sell it - Slow Foods in the Tetons  Sourdough bread fits perfectly with their name and mission statement!  I think my breads have a cult following.  The online market opens at 0900 on Tuesday and by that night, just about all of my breads every week are sold out.  What a great warm and fuzzy feeling!! 

Thanks to the suggestion of dear friend Addie Hare, I bought a pasta roller attachment for my Kitchen Aid.  Stand back!  Homemade kale noodles now fill my lasagna and whole wheat crackers have been added to the que for the Slow Foods product list!  One of their customers recently asked them if they knew of any other place in town that sold these crackers!!  A fan is born!!  I make them plain, with flax seeds, herbs de Provence, rosemary/gourmet pepper, and black and white sesame seeds.  Brushes with a light coat of oil, sprinkled with a few grains of Maldon salt, they are wonderful on an appetizer plate! 

I don't think I'll have any problem keeping busy when I retire!