Verdict: My first sourdough loaf

I caved. I couldn't stand the temptation any more. So what's the verdict? In a word: Gorgeous! It was almost perfect. It had that lovely sourdough acidity--not as punchy as some sourdoughs that I've had before, but unmistakeable, gentle and still strong enough to be noticeable. And the crust was perfect - softish on the bottom, medium on the sides and perfectly crunchy on the top - crunchy but not hard. And the soft inside was chewy and satisfying. The only thing I would have changed about it would have been to let it prove for a bit longer. Just the tiniest hint more air on the inside would have taken it from a really excellent loaf to the-best-loaf-ever. Really, I think this is the best loaf of bread I've ever baked!

Finishing off the loaf

I'd left it for a few hours and decided that I didn't want to go to bed too late, so it's not quite doubled in size, but it's definitely risen at least. Let's get this thing into the oven!Out of the oven, it's looking really rather good! I'm not 100% certain it's baked for long enough, but it's been in the oven for over an hour now, and I'm getting impatient. I'm really looking forward to trying it, but I'm also resisting the urge to dive straight in - letting it cool a bit before cutting it open will help stop it going quite so dry quite so quickly. It smells wonderful!

Progress!

What a difference six hours makes! Here's the dough when I got back from the lab.I'm a bit concerned about the yeast running out of food, so I decided to skip straight to step 7 and deflated it and formed it into a round. It's also on a plate to make it easier to judge how much it's risen and to transfer on to a baking tray.

A dough comes together

Here we are, at the end of step 4. I'm not entirely certain that I've kneaded it quite enough, but we'll see!Maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but I certainly don't want my housemates to throw my bread away by accident!I'm going to head into the lab for a bit now, so my bread will have rather a lot longer than an hour to rise. But I can't see that being a problem :o).

Meet Aage!

I'd like to introduce you all to my pet yeast, Aage. Why Aage? Well, he's named after Aage Bohr, a Nobel prize-winning physicist and the son of Niels Bohr. Aage and Niels went by the names Jim and Nicholas Baker when they were working on the Manhattan project in the 1940s, so it just kinda seemed quite appropriate. Plus, I think Aage's quite a cool name!Aage is settling in to his new home (although he's just moved from a kitchen cupboard to the fridge, so hopefully he'll be happy there too). I just fed him, so it's time to bake my first ever sourdough loaf (or make a start, at least).

My First Sourdough Loaf
Ingredients
For the sponge

• 250g Strong wholemeal flour
• 300ml Water
• The discarded half of Aage*
  

For the dough

• 300g Flour
• 13g Salt
  

Method

1. Mix the ingredients for the sponge together and put into a clean black bin bag, tucking the end under the bowl.
2. Leave overnight.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and form into a dough.
   
4. Knead until smooth and springy.
5. Form into a round, place back into the bowl and bag and leave to rise for an hour.
6. Tip out, form into a round again and leave to rise again.
7. Deflate the dough and shape into a loaf.
8. Place back in the bag and leave to prove until doubled in size.
9. Bake at the hottest oven possible for 10mins and then turn down to 180C/Gas Mark 4 until done; roughly a further 30-40minutes.

*If you're a bit confused by this, when you feed the sourdough starter, you throw half of it away (or bake with it) and replace the amount you threw away with flour and water. So this probably amounts to about 200-250ml of my sourdough starter.

Here's the sponge!

Another sourdough update

Woo hoo! I've successfully caught and tamed some yeast - Look at the frothing!I've now dumped half of the starter out and replaced it with more flour and water, so it's getting close to when I can bake my first loaf with my new pet yeast. I might even be able to bake it as soon as this weekend...

The latest advances in sourdough technology

One day later, we've got the first signs of fermentation! It's a little hard to see from the photo, but there are some tiny bubbles rising to the surface, and there's the tiniest hint of a yeasty smell. Okay, it's not the massive frothing and pungent smell of bread dough that I'd been hoping for, but it's fermentation nonetheless.Time for its first feeding then! I think I used too much water initially, so I've added more flour than water to thicken the batter up a bit. Back into the airing cupboard it goes!

Adventures in sourdough

I love sourdough breads. I love the slight tartness of the taste, that slightly rustic texture and I absolutely adore the concept of harvesting wild yeast. The very idea makes me think of the baker as a hunter - coming back successful from the hunt and feeding his family on the spoils. Okay, so the organisms you hunt are single-celled and rather tiny, but it's still a pretty cool image.

The problem with sourdough is keeping your starter going. It had always been that much too difficult for me to do - living in college, someone was bound to throw my starter away, thinking it was milk that had gone off or something. But now I'm in a flat with two others who like to bake, so I think they might just be willing to put up with my funky-looking sourdough starter in the fridge. The time for talk has passed - it's time to get hunting!

So here's step one of my first ever sourdough loaf. Let's go hunt and tame some yeast! I'm basically following the bread bible's procedure for sourdough.

Sourdough Starter
Ingredients

• Flour
• Water
  

Method

1. Whisk together ~150g flour and ~250ml water in a lidded container, incorporating as much air as possible.
2. Put a lid on and leave in a warm place until signs of fermentation are seen.
3. Whisk in another ~150g flour and ~250ml water and leave for another day.
4. Tip out half of the starter and replace with ~150g flour and ~250ml water.
5. Leave in a cool room.

Sounds simple, right? Well, hopefully it should be! I'm using M&S strong wholemeal flour for mine, and I've only got as far as step 1. But here are some photos anyway! This is how much flour I used (it's a 1 litre container).
With this much water.And that makes this much batter! It's not very exciting yet...

Verdict: Rhubarb and apple crumble

Pretty darned good! It was about the best crumble topping I've ever managed (still slightly over-mixed I think, but not bad), and the balance of flavours was absolutely spot on. It could have done with cooking for a bit longer I think; the filling was very watery and the apples a little bit too firm, but the rhubarb went beautifully soft, which is the main thing in my opinion. It tasted wonderful though!

RhubarbRhubarbRhubarb!

I like rhubarb :o). I'm having Jen and Julian over for dinner tonight to thank them for putting me up between tenancies for yet another year, and I was wondering what to do for dessert. And then I spotted rhubarb on the shelf when I went shopping for ingredients, so I think it's time to do another crumble!

Rhubarb and Apple Crumble
Ingredients
For the filling

• 300g Rhubarb
• 300g Apples
• 125g Caster sugar
  
• ~1tsp Ground cinnamon
• ~1tsp Ground ginger
• ~1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
• A decent slug of cherry brandy

For the topping

• 120g Butter
• 200g Plain flour
• 25g Caster sugar

Method

1. Chop the rhubarb into ~20mm chunks.
2. Core and dice the apples.
3. Grease an ovenproof dish and pour the rhubarb and apple chunks into it.
4. Sprinkle the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cherry brandy over the fruit.
   
5. Rub the butter and flour together until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
6. Heap the topping over the fruit layer.
7. Sprinkle the sugar over the top.
8. Bake at 180C for ~45-60 mins until golden.

Okay, it's just fruit in a bowl, but don't the colours look amazing?!I think I've made the same mistake I always make with crumbles - mixing the flour and butter together too thoroughly. We shall see...Looks good!

It's like Fight Club, only with pastry instead of blood and sugar instead of violence

There's a small group of us who normally dine together in the Balliol SCR on a Monday evening. A few weeks ago, Bob and I had rather a nice idea; an SCR baking club. I have no idea if it'll actually get off the ground, but I thought that even if it doesn't, it'd be quite a nice one-off. I'm baking another Upside-down Tarte Tatin. It's almost exactly the same recipe as last time around. This time, I'm using Royal Gala apples instead of Braeburns, because they were on special offer, and I didn't have any lemon juice, so I threw in a little splash of cider vinegar to give it the acidity. I also chucked in a bit of cinnamon, because I'm firmly of the opinion that you can't go wrong with apples and cinnamon!

Looks pretty gorgeous, doesn't it?