Today's loaf (actually posting on August 10th)

My starter is working well.  Very consistent and delicious smelling.  I still thrill at the sight of the bubbles.

The leaven looked good, but I didn't take a photo 😳.

I decided with this loaf to use less water.  Against the advice in "TARTINE", I have converted the weight measures into cups.  It is just my impatience with the scale.  Maybe if I had a better scale, but I'm not at the point where I am willing to invest in a scale.  Maybe I should put it on my Christmas list?

Anyway, somehow everything still looks the same at the turning, so fingers crossed, it will be better when I turn it out.

Turned out.

First form - done in 2 minutes,  much easier.

Second forming.  Still easy.

Into the preheated pot.  It still stuck to the bottom of the towel, even with tonnes of flour.  Impossible to cut ears.  Maybe I need to reduce the water even more.

Beautifully baked.

Nice crumb, but flatter than I wanted.  I think maybe I should use a smaller pot - less spread?

It was delicious.  My best loaf yet.  I will continue to work on my proportions.

My next loaf...

No photos of finished product because once again I was frustrated at the formation stage.  I was happy with the rise and fall of the starter.

I was also happy with the leaven.

I decided to add more flour at the Beginning to allow for proper fermentation and make handling easier when turned out. The resting and turning looked good too.

However when I did turn it out, it was still too wet for me to manage.  More flour, more frustration.  It is sticking to the last rise towel also which is infuriating and makes ear cutting impossible - there is no skin to cut into.  Not as much oven spring as I wanted either, but it got a full hour cooling time and tasted divine even if it wasn't picture perfect.

Making bread at Sherry's cottage

This loaf ended up being a flop by my standards.  It just didn't get any oven spring.  I didn't take a photo.  I was fed up by the end.

I found the dough to be too wet and ended up adding a lot of lour at the shaping stage just to be able to manage it.  I think this late addition of flour needed a lot more fermentation time, but we were counting on it for dinner (lobster, corn chowder, and fresh bread - mmmmmmm) so I pushed ahead.  It also only got a half hour cool time.  When you cut in before its cool, the bread crashes in on itself and gets gluey - you compresses the air out of the pockets.  However, when we got deeper into the loaf, I noticed the bottom seemed under cooked, so maybe it needed more oven time also.  Oh well, as long as we are learning we are moving forward which is the point after all.

Summer vacation has started (well a while back, remember I'm posting history right now)

Now that I have some more time and the weather is warmer, I've decided to start another starter and see if my hands are enough or whether I need the hands of 13 year olds (God only knows where they have been, but they seem to be full of yeasts!)

It has taken me a while to properly understand how the starter starts and how to feed.  As wasteful as it seems to throw out most of the starter everyday, you actually need to to get the predictable rise.  I have had to accept the wastefulness.  Since I am only making bread once a week, there is a lot of feeding of the starter.

I've been halving the recipe as two large loaves are too much for us to get through before they go stale.  I should try freezing a loaf and seeing how that works.

I've had some successes and some flops, but they always taste wonderful.

Introducing our science unit

To introduce the cells unit, I decided catching invisible organisms from the air would be fun.  Each table group mixed up a starter - we had six.

We watched them and fed them for two weeks.  They rose and fell and bubbles we formed.  We extrapolated what could be happening based on our understanding of respiration.

Of our six starters, two seemed to develop to the point where they looked like they could be used for bread making.

I took them home and made my first four loaves of sourdough starter bread.  Three of the four loaves were devoured by the class and proclaimed to be delicious!

The feedback has also said that this is a great intro for the cells unit and a fun experiment that should be repeated.  Maybe next year I'll have them make the dough as well and I'll do the baking at home.

Posting the past

It looks as though I gave up on this project back in March, but that is not so.

I did buy "COOKED" by Michael Pollan's an "TARTINE" by Chad Robertson.  These two books made a big improvement in my understanding of bread making and "TARTINE" actually has recipes which are a huge help.  The other valuable bit of information that "TARTINE" gave me was pictures.  There are clear photos of what each stage or moment should look like, which is very, very helpful.  I've learned how to inspect dough visually and tactiley for readiness.

I then decided to put my class to use in the starter making department.

Ok, it didn't happen yesterday.

Today is definitely bread day.

It is light and bubbly and smells wonderful.

I added:

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp so of olive oil

1 tsp of sea salt

Now to let it rise .  I kneaded it at noon and will let it rise until I get back from my spa afternoon.  Then it should be ready to bake for dinner.  What goes well with fresh bread?