We spent a lovely couple of weeks in March traveling and returned with a lengthy bout of jet-lag which turned into a lengthy bout of Spring colds. What to do but eye-gobble Netflix?
Between episodes of The Vikings and Outlander, we happened upon Michael Pollen’s Cooked (I recommend both the book and the Netflix series). I was awed by the chapter and episode focused on fermentation and drawn to the idea of (obsessed with?) creating the perfect loaf of whole-wheat sourdough bread. We live in San Francisco… known for sourdough bread… how hard could it be?
Lest you think I’m just a wastrel who travels and bakes, I work hard at my business. Working at a computer all day is something I love. I love it so much, in fact, that I forget to eat, forget to go to the bathroom, forget to move at all (Fitbit be damned). I recently went to the eye doctor for my annual (except it had been four years) check-up ~ sorry to anyone in my passenger seat these last four years. Along with new glasses and eye-drops to alleviate my blistered eyeballs, the doctor recommended that I get up and look at other things throughout the day. Luckily, the bread-making process requires it.
Once again, I cracked open Bread Baking Basics. June came out of hibernation and got her own place on the kitchen counter next to the Cusinart, wrapped in a tartan tea-towel from our recent adventures. I began her daily feedings ~ watching, waiting, and hoping for a lot more farting than before.
Success!
After a few days, June was burbling with a vigor not seen at her conception, and she had a nice, beer-like smell. This time, I tried recipes from Gail’s Artisan Bakery Cookbook by Roy Levy and Gail Mejia and Extra Virgin by Gabriele Corcos. We had been to Gail’s bakery in London and devoured their breads and pastries and we’re big fans of the show Extra Virgin. Following each recipe to the letter produced beautiful loaves of delicious bread, but I was still looking for a way to create a mostly whole-wheat loaf with home-fermented starter.
I did a lot of embellishing. And when I did, these first attempts at Me vs Actual Bakers produced bread that was ok, not too bad, so-so, blah, blah, blah ~ a little dense, but cooked through and somewhat edible the next day. But these were all primarily using white, all-purpose flour.
I tried using an 80/20 ratio of whole-wheat to all-purpose flour ~ it was getting there in flavor, but the dough just wasn’t rising or holding its shape.
I tried adding store-bought yeast during the second rise (I didn’t know it at the time, but this is a way to make baguette dough and enriched breads). That helped, but felt like cheating. I tried doubling the amount of starter to no avail.
Then I got fancy and added a cup of soaked wheat germ and 1/2 cup of honey to the recipe (thinking the honey would feed the yeast and make for more gas development during rising). This improved the flavor quite a bit, but still not the beautiful shape or texture I was looking for.
20 (or so) loaves later…
The neighbors peek out their windows and groan when they see me bopping over with the next experiment ~ an eager beaver, clamoring for feedback on the latest round (“Oh cripes. Here she comes.”).