This weekend, the first weekend of spring break was a perfect opportunity to get out of town with my kids and do a little cabin cooking. More specifically – I was baking bread.
The first loaf of bread in the video posted above is a full-on, quick rise, no muss yeast bread. In my mixing bowl I put a cup and a half of warm water, about a tablespoon of honey, and a teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of yeast.
I let that sit for about ten minutes before stirring in three cups of flour. Let that sit for 20 minutes and then into the 450 degree oven for 35 minutes.
The other two loaves were both sourdough bread – no yeast. I should have let the final loaf in the video above proof longer, but I was pressed for time so I didn’t.
That loaf had two and half cups of unbleached flour and a half cup of dark rye flour. The rye flour gives it a superb texture when you bite into the bread.
I was doing a lot of “work” on my sourdough starter to get it more active after neglecting it for the last ten days. It had become almost too “sour” so I had been removing and composting portions of the starter this weekend. I would take about half of it out and then feed it with more flour so that it lost a bit of the “too sour” flavour. It is still definitely sour, just not unpleasantly so.
Anyway, it was fun playing in the kitchen and having the kids there with me to test the products. They said the bread I made (all three loaves) was perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches which they declared to be “the best in the world”.