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Finally - managed to make a mistake
Jun. 18th, 2011 12:46 pmOkay, that is *so* not the best subject line, full of hubris and so forth. But - yesterday, I made two loaves of sourdough rye bread. And, cunningly, when the dough was "too sticky", I threw in *a lot* of flour. Not just tiny dustings that I knew would be soaked up instantly, forcing me to add more, and then more, etc.... no, I took the bag and sprinkled flour until I was sure an ounce, maybe 2, of flour came out. None of this 'tiny sprinkle at a time' stuff, no, I was wise to the ways of flour and dough, now!
And my loaves cracked along the bottom and the sides when baking. Not too badly - I still have two good loaves of bread. And the good news is, this means my sourdough starter is lively enough to swell up and crack over-dry/over-stiff dough. But, it means that I mis-read the texture as "still a bit wet" when I should have said "eh, a tiny bit too dry."
According to the references I've read, this is normal - whole grain flours are stickier than white flour, and after practicing mostly on white flour, I expected to reduce the stickiness more than I could.
I've also learned (as I suspected) that I *can* eat Gorgonzola cheese without it being grossly fuzzy-tasting, if it's sandwiched between two slices of sourdough rye.
(Eating fermented food with interesting living-critters in it, on bread made from a living colony, is an interesting thing to ponder. Philosophically, I like the kind of "my life intersecting with all these amazing organisms" but I suppose the yeasts, molds, and bacteria have a different opinion on the matter. Then again, so must the cows, pigs, and chickens.)
And my loaves cracked along the bottom and the sides when baking. Not too badly - I still have two good loaves of bread. And the good news is, this means my sourdough starter is lively enough to swell up and crack over-dry/over-stiff dough. But, it means that I mis-read the texture as "still a bit wet" when I should have said "eh, a tiny bit too dry."
According to the references I've read, this is normal - whole grain flours are stickier than white flour, and after practicing mostly on white flour, I expected to reduce the stickiness more than I could.
I've also learned (as I suspected) that I *can* eat Gorgonzola cheese without it being grossly fuzzy-tasting, if it's sandwiched between two slices of sourdough rye.
(Eating fermented food with interesting living-critters in it, on bread made from a living colony, is an interesting thing to ponder. Philosophically, I like the kind of "my life intersecting with all these amazing organisms" but I suppose the yeasts, molds, and bacteria have a different opinion on the matter. Then again, so must the cows, pigs, and chickens.)
