I bake more bread: sourdough part 2
Ooh, first things first, my starter, which has now lived through a whole week and been moved to its new home in the fridge, has a name! Kind of. In recognition of the fact that it's a whole bunch of yeasty-bacterial organisms working together, I've decided to go with a team name instead of considering it one individual pet. Is this in part proactive guilt-mitigation on my part, in case I kill it? Yes. Yes it is. Anyway:
I'm calling this one Team Helmet. It's special.
First try at sourdough pizza with Team Helmet did not kill us, which I'm going to consider a victory. It wasn't amazing pizza, though. I mean, it had goat cheese and tomatoes and, as Tyler pointed out, it was pizza, so we ate it, but the crust wasn't quite the flavor or texture I was hoping for. The crust was not-quite pizza texture: a little too moist, a little too cakey, not quite elastic enough.
So now I am taking another swing at something pizza-like with the leftover dough. I have high hopes it will correct the first attempt's defects. Why? Let me tell you:
Step one: Riper starter! Team Helmet has had few extra days to do its magic, hopefully it will be a little more flavorful.
Step two: More kneading! The last dough got my usual lazy pizza treatment, which involves a couple extra pulses in the food processor and then about a minute of free-hand kneading. I tried to develop the glutens a little more this time by actually working the dough on a counter (fancy - like for actual baking), which also worked some more flour in there, hopefully addressing the excess-moisture-issue.
Step three: Longer rise and rest! The sour flavor was discernible in the last try, but mostly it was blandly, wetly bready. I started this dough Saturday morning, so it should have had plenty of time to infect the rest of the dough with fermentation-y goodness.
I baked a couple mini-loaves on Saturday, which at least proved that the wild yeasts in Team Helmet have what it takes to raise a loaf.
The flavor didn't just bowl me over, but there's no denying it had lift.
So now I'm letting the oven pre-heat and the dough come up to room temperature (it's been in the fridge) and trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it, since it looks like I left our traditional pizza-fixins at Dave's this weekend. Hmmmm.
Pictures (hopefully whatever it is, it will be photogenic) when this thing gets out of the oven.
I'm calling this one Team Helmet. It's special.
First try at sourdough pizza with Team Helmet did not kill us, which I'm going to consider a victory. It wasn't amazing pizza, though. I mean, it had goat cheese and tomatoes and, as Tyler pointed out, it was pizza, so we ate it, but the crust wasn't quite the flavor or texture I was hoping for. The crust was not-quite pizza texture: a little too moist, a little too cakey, not quite elastic enough.
So now I am taking another swing at something pizza-like with the leftover dough. I have high hopes it will correct the first attempt's defects. Why? Let me tell you:
Step one: Riper starter! Team Helmet has had few extra days to do its magic, hopefully it will be a little more flavorful.
Step two: More kneading! The last dough got my usual lazy pizza treatment, which involves a couple extra pulses in the food processor and then about a minute of free-hand kneading. I tried to develop the glutens a little more this time by actually working the dough on a counter (fancy - like for actual baking), which also worked some more flour in there, hopefully addressing the excess-moisture-issue.
Step three: Longer rise and rest! The sour flavor was discernible in the last try, but mostly it was blandly, wetly bready. I started this dough Saturday morning, so it should have had plenty of time to infect the rest of the dough with fermentation-y goodness.
I baked a couple mini-loaves on Saturday, which at least proved that the wild yeasts in Team Helmet have what it takes to raise a loaf.
The flavor didn't just bowl me over, but there's no denying it had lift.
So now I'm letting the oven pre-heat and the dough come up to room temperature (it's been in the fridge) and trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it, since it looks like I left our traditional pizza-fixins at Dave's this weekend. Hmmmm.
Pictures (hopefully whatever it is, it will be photogenic) when this thing gets out of the oven.