Bread

Curious, what’s the purpose of the cut?

Today I found flour. And fresh yeast. Much excite.

How many bottles of booze you got on your worktop dude? 😝

I'm giving sourdough a bash for the first time, starter is coming on nicely. However I was a bit loathe to throw away perfectly good food every day, so the removed half of starter got mixed up with lots of olive oil, salt and thyme and chucked in a low oven for a bit. Crackers! Bit too much colour on them, but alright for a first try.

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Better than I can explain:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/handbook/scoring

Ace!

It lets the loaf “spring”. The cut allows the expansion of the dough instead of it being prevented by the hardening of the crust.

Thanks!

Ah cool, so if you want a dense loaf you wouldn’t cut it - is that ever the case?

Try frying it in butter or oil - makes a really good crumpet

Oh man, that's getting tried tomorrow - crumpets are my kryptonite

If you don’t slash it, it may just burst unpredictability. Denseness is usually the result of under or over proving.

Is that mostly a sourdough thing?

All the gin.

Keeps the spirits up.

You should see all the beer in the fridge #supportourlocalbreweries

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe https://www.injennieskitchen.com/2018/03/sourdough-english-muffins/

But i don't add the sugar and yeast but the frying pan cook. They are great with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon or trout, bacon and poached eggs etc.

Or add an egg and pancakes!

Butter, it is always butter... or lard or dripping.

The people’s champion.

I read today the sales of alcohol were 22% up in March, certainly true in my house!

Going to try the no knead loaf tomorrow

Yesterday’s efforts with Lidl flour. 25/75 whole meal/white, 78% hydration

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This morning bake - again this loaf is going to our neighbours.

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Pic 2

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Lots of dough, ready to go.

And the sickest slippers on the block.

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everyone can stop panicking, our delivery (ordered pre corona virus panic) of 50kg flour arrived yesterday, we can get the starter going again and start baking again...

speaking to shipton mill last week they usually get 200 orders on a usual weekend and they had received over 3000!!

25kg each of standard white strong flour and rye for some more experimentation.

We started using the dutch oven technique and its made a massive difference to the crust of the bread, we've gone from needing a chisel to get through to the yummy bread below to the crust being a great blend of crunchy and chewy that's now probably the best bit!

Looks banging - what method are you using?

Started off with Tartine then have picked up bits and bobs from FWSY. Been making sourdough for about 10 years now so my method has probably evolved a bit away from both of those.
Most consistent improvements for most people are using a Dutch oven, and a cold overnight prove.

What hydration? I think I take it too far, current lot is about 75-77.5%, but I reckon I could do with cutting it down a bit so it holds its shape better without over mixing.