Loafing around with my Sourdough - Today's Bake!

jaynie (75)Memberin WORLD OF XPILAR • 21 days ago

When I first started my sourdough journey, I was absolutely clueless about pretty much everything! Actually no, I was clueless about absolutely EVERYTHING, lol - but it has been such a great adventure so far and I continue to learn new things every single time I bake.

At the beginning, I did not even know what a starter was or that I needed one, but once I learned what that was and how it worked, I got it going and now, I have a very healthy child called "bumpkin". I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but according to sourdough tradition... naming your starter is what you do - and who am I to change the rules :D

The first and only recipe I ever found online is the one that I have stuck to over the past year, mostly because it worked, I liked the end result and I was too lazy to go exploring new ones haha - but as I was a babe in the woods I have followed it verbatim from the start to the end - which also includes the shaping and folding of the dough, which is for a round loaf.

The thing is, as pretty as they are, I have never really been a fan of the round loaves just from a practicality standpoint. The slices are always too big for the toaster etc. so early on I decided to do everything as per the recipe, but instead of baking the circular shaped dough in a round - the one day I just squished it into a traditional loaf shaped tin - and this was the end result...

It worked, the loaves were super and I have pretty much been a happy camper ever since - and for that matter, so have all the local village customers I have sold to over the last year. But lately, and for no particular reason, I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that I wanted to actually get a slightly less "rustic" looking loaf so that I could experiment more with the decorating on the top... (typical artist haha).

Sooooo, I have been practicing with different stretch and fold techniques and also resting the dough in a loaf shape so that it is all ready for when it goes into the oven. I onlt ever bought the round shaped baskets and cloth liners, so for the time being I have just been using the actual loaf tin with the round cloth liner in it for the dough to sit over night in the fridge. Its not perfect okay, but it works, lol!

I just mixed dough for one loaf last night to test it out and it all looked good to go this morning. Popped it in the oven and YAY! I know it has plenty of room for improvement okay - so be kind, lol. I am a student, not a master :D But I am pretty pleased with the result considering I am technically using the incorrect "tools" for a loaf shape, coupled with the fact that I know little to nothing by comparison to many of the guru's out there :D