Adventures in Sourdough: Episode Two

 The thing about having a new hobby that you theoretically can't kill....you play around with it.  Mandough (my starter) was hanging out in the fridge, and not really growing. So I pulled it out on the counter to hang out at room temp for a day.  And he got really active and bubbly....so I put him back in the fridge. Whence he promptly shrunk back down and all the bubbles disappeared.  PROBABLY because I didn't feed it while it was hanging out on the counter for the day.  

So when I decided to feed/make bread this past Saturday, he was looking REAL sad and deflated.  And hadn't grown much...I only had about 200g of starter to work with.  So I pulled 70g out for bread, and fed the rest with a 1:1 water-flour ratio and let him hang on the countertop for 5 hours.  Then he was nice & happy.

I used the same basic sourdough recipe for the discard this week, but halved the portions since I was only working with half as much starter:

Ingredients:

70g starter

120g water

12g olive oil

250g AP flour

5g salt

It's warmer this weekend, outside temps of 50-60's F--much better for rising.  Which is good, since I started working on this a little before lunch time on Saturday.  Last week it was only 67F inside the house, so I did an overnight bulk rise for 12 hours.  If I followed the same timeline this week, I'd be making bread at midnight.  So I sat the bowl in a sunny spot on the counter near a window.  

Around 8pm, I kneaded a bit and folded it into a ball, then transferred it into the fridge to proof overnight (rather than staying up late to bake).  I read a few recipes that noted some time in the fridge would help flavors develop, and my 4.5 years at Papa John's remembers the trays and trays of pizza dough proofing in the walk in cooler. 

After church I pulled it out of the fridge to get to room temp, and started heating the oven to 450F.  And remembered to score it right before putting it in the oven this time!

Pale loaf after removing the lid.

Made a cute little boule, sorta dainty given that it was just a half-batch.  

Flavor-wise I think this one was about the same as last week, but maybe I haven't developed a refined enough palette to compare after only 2 loaves. I will say this one sliced much more easily than the last one.  We were able to slice it fairly thin and it made some great breakfast toast. I wanted to make some grilled cheese with it but was out of town for work most of the week.