I am pleased today...
I actually followed a recipe (Jeffrey Hamelman's Pain au Levain) without cutting corners and fiddling about with it. Well, that's not wholly true, I did keep a bit of flour back as my Dove Bread flour seems very absorbent.
My last attempts haven't made it up here as they have been ok (for which read edible) but nothing to write home about. Oh except for the last one that I managed to burn....
I have been adding a little bit of instant yeast in, and this has helped a bit, but the rise was still always sideways not upwards with no oven spring so it was obvious I was doing something wrong.
So here are today's offerings: One loaf (banana shaped, but it was bigger than expected so I had to curve it onto the baking sheet a bit) and some rolls. I cut the rolls like Waitrose's Rustic rolls, or ciabatta, although the crumb will probably be tighter than ciabatta. I am being a good girl and not cutting until it is quite cold tonight.
The Sourdough is really lively now. The levain called for here was much stiffer than I had been making before, and I liked it much more. I think I will experiment a bit more with stiffer levains, and possibly poolish too.
It is such a relief to know I can do it. And the bread is made with no fat at all, and still tastes good with no butter so it is excellent for my low fat diet.
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