And More Sourdough--post 5

Overnight Baguette Twists

This is post number five of documenting recipes from "Artisan Sourdough Made Simple" by Emilie Raffa. There is no quilt related information in this post. Gertie, my inner squirrel, disagrees with me. She believes sourdough fuels the quilter. She has a point!

As I bake a new recipe I try to remember to take a photo before cutting into the bread so I can document the recipe. Sometimes, I am successful! For New Year's Eve, I had planned a quiet evening with appetizers as dinner as the way to ring in the new year on Central time. My family had other ideas; but, I had already started the bread so I made it anyway. This was the Overnight Baguette Twists recipe. 

Checking out the texture of a slice

We ate the first loaf as a snack. That loaf evaporated! I wrapped the second loaf in plastic. We ate it for dinner on New Year's. I froze the third loaf for another day. I liked the size of the slices as they were the perfect size for spreading with cheese from the charcuterie.

No-Knead Chocolate Chunk Focaccia with Cream Cheese and Nutella

Miss A, the youngest granddaughter, asked for a chocolate bread. She loves chocolate! I baked No-Knead Chocolate Chunk Focaccia with Cream Cheese and Nutella. We tried a slice while it was warm. It was too rich for all of us!

Light. and Fluffy Brioche

In the middle of January, I baked the Light and Fluffy Brioche. It was light, tender and delicious. I wondered how it would be because small chunks of cold butter are kneaded via a dough hook into the dough. Shaping the loaf was different because some of the butter was still in chunks. I chose to shape four balls and make a decorative loaf.

The first slice

I think the holes are where there was a chunk of butter! I would make this recipe again. It is a rich dough. It tasted great warm and it tasted great after it had fully cooled.

A few weeks into the new year, Jennifer, who writes the Elefantz blog, posted this link about medieval peasant bakers. It's about a twenty minutes video which I found enlightening. No wonder when I eat "store" bread, I feel hungry in about 20 minutes; but, a slice of my sourdough bread will keep me going for hours! Jennifer also shared a video link from Homestead Kitchen about how to make sourdough starter. If you already have a starter, skip to about the two thirds point to watch her bake a loaf.

My grandmother baked sourdough bread. For my grandfather she baked rye bread because he became gluten intolerant. I know that her bread had yeast and she didn't wait 12-24 hours to bake a loaf. . .but, if she had, perhaps, my grandfather could have eaten her bread. 

Perhaps, I'll be phasing out the store bread purchasing and begin eating my homemade sourdough loaves instead. The challenge is the loaves don't last all that long. Three days is about the limit. Perhaps, I need to bake smaller loaves and freeze one or give one away. 

Mighty Multigrain loaf with a dusting of flour

Mighty Multigrain was the next recipe that I tried. I've wanted to try this recipe for sometime; but, it was challenging to locate the spelt flour and 10 grain cereal that were two of the ingredients. Instead of going to the grocery store and searching, I did an internet search to find the products locally. My husband picked up the items. Yes, he still had to search. . .the 10 grain cereal was the last package in the store and it was located behind another product! How he found it was through the help of one of the shoppers who fills store orders.

Cutting the first slice

This recipe allows the fermentation to take place on the kitchen counter so the loaf can be made in a day. The crumb is soft and bouncy. I liked the flavor and will make this recipe again as it is a favorite!

Flaxseed with Spelt Flour

Flaxseed with spelt flour was the next recipe I tried. The actual recipe called for golden flaxseed. I had regular flaxseed so that was what I used. Again, it took a long time for the bread to raise and the dough was sticky; but, in the end it baked well. It is another recipe that can be made in a day. There isn't a photo of it as a whole loaf because I forgot to take a photo before I cut into it!

We decided that while good, it wasn't as good as the mighty multigrain recipe that I had baked the previous week. It is a recipe that I would make again!

Multigrain loaf

Another recipe using the 10 grain cereal was the Multigrain loaf. The recipe makes a huge loaf. It was delicious. It was moist and had a soft crumb. While my husband was munching his slice, I asked him which was his favorite. He replied, he needed a bake off and even then, he wasn't sure he could decide! I'm glad he didn't ask me for my favorite. . . as I'd have to answer as he did!

View of the first cut

I'll be baking a few sweet recipes next.