Autumn Update

Sorry for the long period of inactivity! It's rather a long story but having finally got the-all clear on the cancer front, we went off for a first holiday in three years to the Greek Islands. Travelling by ferry we planned to visit Crete, Santorini, Paros, Naxos and Mykonos and explore the islands. Nice weather but some of the hotel locations Trailfinders had booked us in were in totally wrong locations and they also gave us a lot of incorrect information. Shame really as they have always been very good in the past. Then on top of everything we have both caught Covid, probably being herded onto those ferries!

Hopefully once fully recovered I will get back to baking and experimenting. I have some new formula I want to try out, so watch this space.

 

Spring Update

 After a longish period on not baking due to illness, I have just started baking again but my starter seems to have become very lazy! 

I did think of starting a new starter altogether, but decided to give the existing one a last chance. So I ditched half of it and gave it a good feed yesterday, then did the same again today. It looks pretty lively now:

So I'm going to get up early tomorrow morning and start a new loaf with it. 

For a change I made a loaf during the day (i.e. without a long first rise overnight).

After four hours the dough had about doubled in size, so I knocked it back, stretched and folded and shaped it for the Lekue.

After four hours the dough had risen but not as much as I expected. I went ahead and baked from cold and the bread was just about OK, but not up to the best standard, so I started a new batch of starter.

I began with a small cup of flour and one of water, and added the same each day for four days, then just a cup of flour on the fifth day as it was a bit runny. It was looking OK after that so I baked a basic loaf in a loaf tin. It hadn't risen as much as I had hoped after 4 hours but I went ahead and baked it from cold anyway. 

It had a nice crisp crust but I didn't get a chance to use it until today but once sliced it looked pretty good, with a nice open crumb. But still a bit compacted at the base of the loaf.

I'll give it a longer second rise next time.

Meaanwhile I will stick with my new starter now and throw away the old one.

Happy baking!