Therapy baking

I am happy to report I finally got bread flour. And 30 grams of yeast. But only 30 grams. Which means I was able to bake one loaf. Juuuuust enough to scratch the itch, but not enough to fully satisfy it.

This gorgeous gal was VERY well received and was the main course for dinner the night after I made it.

So many goodies!

We had two kinds of brie (cow and goat milk), prosciutto, red walnuts, and a fig orange preserve.

I used a white bread recipe, but adapted it for a boule rather than a loaf. If you are not an expert bread baker, you probably shouldn’t throw caution to the wind and “adapt” things on your first go, but I’m a risk taker and lucky for us all, it worked out!

Going forward, I will probably be better about following recipes more precisely because there were certain points during this process where I got a little nervous and starting cursing myself for having the audacity to wing it.

This story has a happy ending though.

The kids are calling these meals (we have done two now) “feasts”. Kyle and I used to call them al fresco dinners, even though we stopped eating them outside soon after P was born. They are basically cheese board dinners, with a bunch of nibbles that you can eat as much or as little of and the kids are BIG FANS.

I’m especially excited by this because to me it feels a little lazy, so if they think it’s a special thing then WE ALL WIN!!

Even though it’s finally now warming up outside, last week it was still a bit cool in the house for rising to happen without a little assistance.

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So I left it near the open oven after I finished roasting some nuts. Voila! That did the trick!

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My other “cheat” for stickier doughs is parchment paper. It means the transfer to the cast iron dutch oven is a super simple affair. No need to worry that your loaf will end up misshapen or off centered or whatever. Just do the final rise/rest on parchment paper and then lift and lower into the hot ditch oven. If the paper sticks to the sides as you put it in, just leave it. It will pull away as it bakes.

And voila!

A lovely crumb indeed.

I still have quite a bit of work to do with shaping and slashing my loaves, but I’m still new to yeasted breads (that aren’t made in the bread machine).

Quick breads, however, are my bread and butter.

I could make banana bread with my eyes closed (not really, but you get the point).

During my latest pantry deep dive, I found an old can of pumpkin puree. Sure enough, after the kids were in bed one night, the mood struck! After all, I finally had both bread AND all purpose flour!!!

It’s starting to feel like old times (minus the fact that I haven’t been into an actual grocery store in FOREVER).

Pumpkin loaves it was. With walnuts, raisins, and chocolate chips! Why not?

I’m glad I made two loaves because these fools took the first one down in a single serving! There was nothing but quiet chewing sounds that breakfast.

The second loaf suffered a similar fate, so all I can say now is, bring on the bread!

Are you ready for this?

Am I ready for this??

Yes, we are. Like Glennon says, we can do hard things!

Although, truth be told, sourdough might not be as hard as it seems from the outside.

It’s complicated until you just get in there and DO IT…and then it starts to make sense…

But I’m jumping ahead.

Let me back up to last week, after baking those first loaves and realizing

(a) it was the exact hobby I needed at this point in time
(b) the rest of the family was down with bread as a main course
(c) I was never getting yeast any time soon

I knew the time had come to embrace what had previously scared me.

So I got a starter from a friend and dove in to the world of bubbly starters head first.

I probably read 100 articles about sourdough in the three days leading up to getting the starter, so I was definitely ready to give it a go.

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And while I don’t have all the fancy accessories that professional sourdough bakers have, I do have a food scale, which is the most important item I have previously refused to use. You all know, I am a lazy cook. I don’t want to dirty things that I don’t have to. I don’t want to buy tools or ingredients that are superfluous. And I’ve always put a kitchen scale in that category. The only reason I even had the scale was to weigh Pattycakes’ doses (which I stopped doing once I learned to eye-ball it well enough). I am so lazy. Anyway. It turns out, using the scale wasn’t nearly as annoying as I thought it was going to be. And it is definitely critical for me to use as a new baker.

For my first recipe, I followed this recipe by the clever carrot exactly as it was written.

And while the crust and shape of the loaf need major work, I was SO pleased with the inside.

How gorgeous is that bubbly holey crumb?!

Perfection!

And thanks to the long bulk fermentation and amazing starter, the bread was delightfully tangy and sour. LIKE REAL LEGIT SOURDOUGH!!

My mind was blown.

And so, once again, we had a “feast” dinner.

Is there anything better than fresh bread? No, ma’am.

I felt like I was transported back in time, to when I was growing up and we had real San Francisco sourdough with dinner.

I can’t wait to keep this baby going!!

For now, I have been feeding them every few days and storing them in the fridge.

The kids have named the starter (and all the iterations) as well as each loaf. Rosie is our (OG) starter, which P named after Rosie the Riveter. I told him to pick a strong resilient woman and he came up with Rosie immediately. I loved it.

The second one was/is Abraham (named after Abe Lincoln), which P also chose. He wanted to pick a male this time and so he chose his favorite President as inspiration. We are probably baking Abe this week because we just polished off the last of Rosie.

For this feast, I roasted some chickpeas (we didn’t have any prosciutto or smoked salmon or dried meat).

And the rest of the spread included red walnuts, three kinds of cheese, fig orange preserves, and home-made nectarine jam.

Look ma! I’m a baker!

Wish me luck!