success
Using my sourdough starter and a method halfway between Mark Bittman's sourdough loaf recipe and no-knead bread, I have finally made Very Good Bread. It has a beautiful brown crust (which this morning, the loaf having been removed from the oven at about 10:30 pm and cooled all night on a rack, was perfectly crisp but has now softened a bit, alas) and the light interior texture with holes that you get in good European-style bread but that until now I'd had no clue how to replicate. The key things seem to be using a very wet dough (thanks for the tip, executrix!) and baking the bread in a covered pot for the first half hour, which reproduces the effect of professional steam-injected ovens. Oh, and I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, which probably helped the structure.
There's still room for improvement. I'd have liked more holes (this time I compromised between the amount of water Bittman calls for and the amount the no-knead recipe calls for; next time I'll use the full no-knead amount), the sourdough wasn't very sour (the starter's on the counter now souring some more), and I think I forgot to add salt.
Nevertheless, it was as good as all but the very best professionally-made bread I've had. I'm pleased, especially since my yeast bread has gone from "barely edible" to "awfully good" in about four loaves.
Maybe I'm getting old, but it seems to me now that being able to make a good loaf of bread is a not unworthy achievement.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.
There's still room for improvement. I'd have liked more holes (this time I compromised between the amount of water Bittman calls for and the amount the no-knead recipe calls for; next time I'll use the full no-knead amount), the sourdough wasn't very sour (the starter's on the counter now souring some more), and I think I forgot to add salt.
Nevertheless, it was as good as all but the very best professionally-made bread I've had. I'm pleased, especially since my yeast bread has gone from "barely edible" to "awfully good" in about four loaves.
Maybe I'm getting old, but it seems to me now that being able to make a good loaf of bread is a not unworthy achievement.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.