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Wednesday 2 March 2016

Right Lets Get it all Co-ordinated!

Today was a bread baking day and I was determined to get the oven and the sourdough ready at the same time....


It started well.  The sourdough was doing its thing since yesterday morning and I decided to spice things up a bit by adding some seeds and sultanas to the dough - no recipe... hey lets just live dangerously!


I soaked the seeds first because I read recently that it makes them more digestible and I have issues with digestion.  But then they were very wet.  I can't add them to the dough that wet.  So I had to try and dry them off with tea towels.  It was kind of successful.

I added them to the dough after the first two rises and then put them into the baskets to prove.


I made a bog standard plain loaf at the same time - yeah I felt bad about abandoning the bakers in the village, I mean they give me the yeast for free these days because I buy the flour from them... and we chat... and I meant to bring up the subject of the sourdough to kind of ease them into the idea that I might not be coming for yeast any more... oh and of course eventually I might not be coming for flour either....


Anyway, I had hoped to do some sewing today but realistically bread baking is a whole day affair when you use the oven.  The fire took really well and the oven heated really quickly... just as well since the bread dough had been ready for a while.

So nice to have a warm day when I can leave the bread to prove outside

OK.  So I should have taken the embers out, but the last time I did that, the oven cooled really quickly.  But the ambient temperature was about 19C today and I think that made a difference... the oven was too hot for the bread.  I left it as long as I dared to cool but then just had to put the bread in.
Don't know why I look at it... it lies!

Yup.  It was too hot.


The white loaf is recoverable... not sure about the sourdough.  Haven't cut it yet.  Actually I am totally cheesed off!  I don't seem to be learning much at all when it comes to the oven.  Every time I use it, its different and what I know doesn't seem to apply... so it's like the first time every time.  Sigh.


Woman says Never Give Up, Never Surrender.  Man says... it might be ok if we cut the crust off.










2 comments:

  1. Oh - too bad! Looks like you might have to factor in the ambient temperature into your complex calculations.

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    1. Hi Wilma, the crust turned out to be too hard to get through but the inside of the sourdough with the seeds and sultanas was amazingly good... so I shall definitely do the soaking of the seeds again... guess I learned something! Onward and upward.

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