9:00 this morning... a moment of panic... my dough didn't seem to have changed much during its 15 hours in the fridge...
I thought about it a bit, and realized that the fridge is where sourdough goes when you want it to be in a dormant state. So why did it need to live there for 15 hours, when it seemed to me like it should have been somewhere warmer, rising at that point in its life? Oh, well. I got over it, dumped out the dough, and formed two oval loaves (rather than the making two baguettes from each batch like the recipe suggested):
They may not have looked perfect, but they looked a lot like the artisan bread we buy at the grocery store, which was what I was envisioning. Since it's so cool here today, I turned on the oven for just a few seconds, and turned on the interior light. Then I put the loaves in to rise for about 6 hours...
Having flashbacks to a certain Sir Mix-a-Lot video, circa 1989?
Go ahead. Laugh. I know you want to. I did when I took the picture. The dough obviously did double in size, but it also spread out a lot, and rose more "out" than "up."
I preheated the oven to 450, misted the risen dough, put it in the oven, and spritzed it (again) and the oven (taking care not to spray the light bulb in the oven -- a lesson I learned the hard way the first time I attempted sourdough bread!). In there it stayed for just about half an hour, until it looked like this:
Yes, I cut a piece off before I remembered to take a picture. =) I ended up with something much more like ciabatta than a freeform, oval loaf. It's about 1 1/2" thick... maybe closer to 2" right in the center. The crust is a little darker than I usually like, but it's crispy and crackly, just like real artisan bread! The texture, fortunately, is far from that of a doorstop. Yay!!!
It's holey and chewy and tangy. I declare it to be a success.
The dough definitely needs more flour than the recipe calls for. I think that will help it retain its shape better once loaves are formed. Next time, I will watch it more closely as it mixes and not be afraid to add more flour than I did this time. I'm sure it depends a lot on how thick or thin the sponge is, too... it's all so complicated! But I am happy. I certianly learned a few things to watch for next time, and I ended up with some pretty damn good bread!
Kelli September 20, 2004 07:37 AM PDT Angela -- I am pretty encouraged by the results. My first attempt was a big flop, as I may have mentioned at some point in my blog! This dough was definitely a bit too wet... but I'm actually to excited to try again!
Angela September 19, 2004 06:41 AM PDT The loaves look fantastic Kelli! I've been popping in over the past few days to see how your sourdough is getting on and I'm so pleased to see it turn out so well.
Your sourdough adventures have been much more sucessful than mine. I kept forgetting to feed the starter on time and it died very quickly :/
