bread beginsCharlie took the Yeti to work on Monday, so I was trapped in the house for the duration. To console myself I made a batch of sourdough bread. After a month my starter is still alive, which is amazing considering it's the fourth or fifth starter I've tried to sustain in the past few years. There's something about the yeast here. It is the most limp-wristed milquetoast fermenting wild yeast I have ever encountered. A good sourdough has all of the yeast ganging up on you in a wild horde rush. Imagine blue painted picts running over the countryside waving their spears in the air and giving your mouth a real jolt of interest.
bread rises, starter prepares to return to the fridge, my favorite enormous bowlThe local yeast is more Waldorf style. You slice a piece of bread and it tastes like a circle of pale children listlessly sliding rainbow silk scarves over their heads and muttering salutations in french. It's good bread, but pretty dull.
proper use of waldorf scarf(not that I have anything against Waldorf or the scarves...I've read a lot of early childhood development and alternate education methods and find something interesting in all of them. And Calliope's Christmas present from me was a set of silk scarves that she uses in fantastic ways)
must. cool. before. slicing.This time I raided the pantry and decided to experiment. Into a skillet went a cup of pounded hazlenuts. They were toasted, cooled, and then whizzed in the food processor into a fine meal. I added that to the usual bread ingredients. Verdict: it made for a lovely toast. The bread itself has only the barest hint of nuttiness if you eat it out of hand, but if you toast it then the nuts are activated and it is delicious. If I had nutella on it I would probably pass out in bliss.
crumbyRandom result of making lots of bread: the end bits often don't get eaten and end up as dried curls on the breadboard. They make excellent breadcrumbs!
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Eggs laid in the coop today: 3
Eggs laid this year: 215
Eggs laid in the coop today: 3
Eggs laid this year: 215
2 comments:
The. Most. Delicious. Sourdough. Ever.
Even the girls couldn't get enough of it! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Oooh! Hazelnuts. Must try that. I've done something similar with pecans, and it was interesting.
I don't do much baking anymore, unfortunately, as Elisabeth has developed a gluten intolerance. Things with any amount of gluten, soy, or mustard are now off-limits for her. She says she doesn't mind if *I* bake such things and eat them, but I figure it's not nice to make things that smell so good to her that she's forbidden to try. now I only bake for special, out-of-the-house occasions. I still get all my baking catalogs, and I gaze wistfully at them like a kitten in the window watching the wind ripple through the grass.
I gave all my starter away. It was such nice, boisterous starter, too. If I'd known you were in need of some I'd have cultured some for you. ~sigh~
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