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woman’s blog – STARCHDATE 151226.9
10:00 AM
Today’s mission will be to take make the Classic Italian Bread recipe for the 4th time, shaping it into 6 sandwich rolls for dinner and keep Rory and Amy (our sourdough starters) alive.
10:56 AM
Morning check on the Ponds… and Rory looks like he grew overnight and is getting hungry. While Amy is holding strong at her doubled mark.
I check with Captain Sourpants and Rory isn’t supposed to be fed until tonight.
Mr. Leo says the same for Amy… so I guess we wait.
12:28 PM
Time to make the Classic Italian Bread for the fourth time and this time we are shaping it into 6 sandwich rolls.
“Shaping” is a very generous description that implies a whole lot more control of the situation that my current skill level warrants.
Dry ingredients measured and in the bowl.
Wow. I have went through a whole 5lb bag of bread flour between my experiments and feeding Amy and Rory.
Better order more flour.
For the wet ingredients I am keeping my trick from yesterday in slightly warming up both the beer and distilled water.
Into the mixer with the same mixing times as yesterday.
Same ingredients, same measurements, same methods, same temperatures and yet…
This dough is great but quite different than yesterday.
Not bad. Just different. Slightly stickier and not quite as gassy just yet.
It is wild to me that I have made this same recipe 4 times and the dough has not even been close to similar each time.
1:43 PM
My dough doubled and this dough is coming along quite nicely… she is just way more sluggish than yesterday.
1:50 PM
I struggle to evenly divide my dough and then I struggle to form them into uniform sandwich rolls.
um. They are far from pretty.
But dinner once again is counting on these babies, so they are gonna have to do.
I cannot CANNOT mess up Chicken PoBoy night.
But seriously, I need to go to shaping school… these are giving… third grade art project vibes.
and oddly look like… feet?
With “shaping” done, I need to let these girls rise by half.
Again, I place them in my top oven (turned off) with my bottom oven preheating.
2:59 PM
Uniform we definitely are not.
However, time did remedy the “feet” issue”.
The top row is a bit crowded so I am going to do a bit of a switch-a-roo to space things out.
Now for my next nemesis… the bread razor blade thing that is appropriately named “lame”
ok… ok… a little better.
I think I was both holding it wrong and going too slow last time.
My technique still needs work, but honestly, that went better than expected.
3:02 PM
spritz, spritz.
It suddenly occurs to me that this is the longest time I have ever kept track of a water bottle in my life.
And into the oven.
OH NOOOOO….
Man, down, man down!
In my transfer to the hot pan, my parchment betrayed me at the last minute.
Ok… keep calm…
I can’t “adjust things” the dough is sticking to the hot pan.
I have no other choice to keep going forward… it is PoBoy night.
Onward.
Bake for 5 minutes and turn…
ohhh… yeah, it IS as bad as I thought.
5 more minutes and I pull them.
3:17 PM
And now we let them cool…
It is way worse than it looks, but the other 5 sandwich rolls are great.
Man that totally bums me out… if only I had some fresh hot bread from the oven that I could totally break all the rules with and slather it with butter and console myself with…
The daughter and I make the executive decision to turn my mistake into a much happier occasion.
And it was GOOD.
Seriously, the not eating warm bread thing may be a rule I break often.
6:13 PM
Dinner was a huge success!
This recipe has officially become our go-to for sandwich breads.
It was able to absorb and hold the sandwich fixings without getting soggy, yet it was pillowy soft with an excellent chew.
10:00 PM
Time to feed Rory and Amy.
Rory has been starving all day. Seriously I think I may need to go rogue and start giving him an extra feeding.
See those drag marks where he has risen and fell.
I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that is him yelling “feed me” at me all day.
Amy on the other hand has sustained her growth like a champ.
She moves a LOT slower than Rory, but she seems like she can sustain herself a lot longer than he can…
I am, guessing that rye flour might have something to do with it.
As for the feeding… well Rory was once again straight forward.
Dump out half of the starter. Add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup bread flour.
Scrape down sides.
Adjust band.
Done.
Amy’s feedings are always a lot more messy than Rory.
The rye flour sticks to the sides of the jar.
And this time I made it way more complicated thinking I could just math my way through it…
I created this complicated equation of figuring how much starter was in the jar… Current weight minus jar weight.
UNNECESSARY.
Then I figured how much I wanted it to weigh. Jar plus 75 g.
NECESSARY.
Then for some ungodly reason, I figured the equation of how much I needed to remove. First equation minus 75g.
UNNECESSARY.
The ONLY math I needed to figure was the jar plus 75 g and weigh it as I removed starter until I got to the number.
Listen.
Doing unnecessary math equations is completely unacceptable.
Who am I anymore?
Lesson learned.
12:21 AM
Math debacle aside. One quick check before bed and it looks like Rory is growing!
Experiment Updates for Future Bakes
- I think Rory and Amy are doing great. I do think we might need to look at increasing their feedings, especially Rory.
- I recently learned that sourdough discard can be used as a fertilizer in the garden, so that is worth exploring.
- I need a new way to transfer the bread to the oven…
- And, I need to read up on shaping…
- I have one more bake* of the Classic Italian Bread for testing and… I think I might invite some royalty to the party…
*I am following the recommendation of baking each recipe a minimum of 5 times to get a feel for it.
I initially thought that was overkill, but given how each time I bake this bread it acts a little bit different, I totally understand that recommendation.
If I had stopped after my first loaf, I would have thought the crust wasn’t the best.
Or, after the second, I would have thought the dough was too sticky and sluggish.
Each time has had its own personality.
And now I have an overall feel for the recipe.
I am really glad to about have this Italian Loaf under my belt before attempting the baking world of sourdough…
The time is near…
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