This was the best sourdough I’ve made yet! The recipe was from heartbeet kitchen, which I discovered through another friend on instagram. So glad I did! She has lots of videos for shaping dough and showing what your bread should look like at various points that are SUPER helpful for sourdough newbies like me.
We had it with Caesar salad – with leftover chicken and steak.
It was SOOOO soft and squishy! And yet, the crust was crispy crunchy! Amazing! You could literally spring the piece together in your hand.
We tried it the next morning too, with butter puddling in the middle.
Divine.
Anyway, this was all before I made it to the grocery store, so we had this new brand of Caesar dressing that was the only one I could get (via farmfreshtoyou) and while it wasn’t my absolute fave, it was good enough to get again.
FYI my absolute fave is tessemae’s creamy caesar. It’s the best.
Thanks to the videos on shaping I’m getting better at it.
But slashing the tops still intimidates me and I can’t seem to figure out a good way to do it. I need a scalpel or something?! Nothing I have is sharp enough. Tips if you have them!!!
I finally realized that white rice flour is preferred by bakers for a reason, and thanks to my being semi gluten free, I happened to have it already (I legit have ~20 kinds of flour in the pantry). So maybe that’s part of the reason this loaf’s shape was such a success?
Anyway, we had it for brekkie and then again as a part of our “feast” a day later.
We had other kinds of cheese and nuts too, as well as fresh strawberries.
Wait, how am I so far behind in blogging that I haven’t even showed off the berries Kyle came home with?!?! That was weeks ago! He’s already gone again!
Well apparently I didn’t take many pics of them, but we did manage to off load them to friends pretty quickly.
He brought 5 pallets home so I spent much of that Saturday making home deliveries to friends and neighbors. It was nice to spread joy in the form of freshly picked fruit. POUNDS of fruit to be exact.
Per usual, I kept a bunch for myself to freeze for smoothies and make into jam, but I also made popsicles for the kids and a big cobbler right away.
I even had whipped cream to add on top!
Feels like summer!
At least there are sweet perks to Kyle traveling for a week at a time!
I can’t even keep track of how many meals I’ve taken pics of and forgotten to share. It’s like we eat 6 meals a day or something!?!
Another soup made from a whole chicken that I did in the pressure cooker.
Another salad made from the last of the produce before the next CSA arrived.
Another loaf of bread.
It’s all blurring together.
This steak was from five mile ranch and the sausage was from the meat lab on campus. I’m not speaking in hyperbole when I say it was the best sausage I’ve ever had.
We were all fighting over the kielbasa.
Dessert break.
Oh hey! Here’s that chicken dinner that I mentioned using the leftovers in the Caesar salad!
Brown rice, broccoli, and teriyaki sauce makes it a bowl.
Always this salad.
I used my air fryer for these potatoes which turned out so p e r f e c t.
Plus asparagus and meatballs.
Both the berries and the pie were gone around the same time, which was just in time for Kyle to return to the field…
But before he leaves we have one more night together. Which includes this loaf right here.
I used this bread recipe by King Arthur. It was supposed to be two loaves but I just made one big one so that we would have big pieces for sandwiches.
Is my slashing technique improving?? Hard to tell.
Snack plates are on point though. 😛
A couple of tips: a double-edged razor blade is what we using for scoring. I buy them off Amazon and am not fancy so just use a coffee stir stick spit in half for a handle 🙂 As for scoring itself, there needs to be a bit of a skin on top of the loaf in order to get a good cut. Your dough pic still looked pretty uneven and raw, if that makes sense? That’s where the practice with shaping will come so you get a nice taut skin for the final shape. Also, if you do the final proof in some sort of container that is lined or unlined and dusted with flour that will help too!
wow, wow! what a beautiful loaf! i’m so glad you had success with my recipe. xo
It was the best sourdough I’ve made thus far. Thank you!!
these are very helpful tips. i really need to keep working on my shaping to get a taut skin on top.
and it also sounds like i may need to invest in the proper tools, not just the razor but the basket and such. hmmm…
You can even start with any bowl and line it with a tea towel dusted with rice flour!
and it really wont stick??
Part of it will depend if you can get that bit of skin to form when shaping, but a linen or flour sack style of towel works great! Rice flour also does a really good job of preventing sticking. When I’m working with my higher hydration doughs, I really depend on the rice flour. Linen couches or liners are actually traditionally what are used! Also, I recommend avoiding metal bowls for the final proof because they can suck the heat out of the dough. Stick with something thicker if you have it 🙂
Baking with Jack on Youtube is an excellent channel. He explains everything in a very straightforward approach and provides great visual of how to knead, shape, etc …
thank you!
thank you so much!