Monday, February 07, 2011

Another Sunday Sourdough

Another loaf using freshly-milled organic spelt, tons of sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds, and a dripping serving spoon of Kentucky-made sorghum molasses. Oh - and lots of butter.

I might have a weekly routine going; I've managed to bake sourdough for the past three Sundays in a row. With the non-existent weekly schedule in our house (I'm at home, and my husband's schedule changes monthly, and randomly switches from day- to night- to evening-shifts), this feels solid and comforting.
I'm so happy with the strides I've made with whole grain sourdough lately. The last two batches have been downright delicious - not even very sour, though I'm not sure why, considering I'm using the same starter and general recipe.
I have settled into using The Tassajara Bread Book's guidelines for making sourdough. Hilariously (because I rarely follow recipes that closely), the closer I follow the recipe, the better the bread turns out! ;) He knows his stuff.
I have been kneading in copious amounts of seeds - sprouted sunflower, sesame, and flax - inspired by a loaf we loved in Baja Sur that Woo and Miles found at the Saturday organic farmers' market in San Jose del Cabo. (I know; how awesome that there's an organic market there!) Although I doubt that those bakers added quite the amount of butter that I'm also loading into this loaf. I look forward to the opportunity to share this bread with Woo, a passionate bread-lover, to hear her response. :)
One thing that is so hard for me to relearn, after my background in packaged-yeast bread baking, is how soft the dough needs to be in order to rise; mine are still not rising much. But they certainly are damn tasty.



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