Ever since I discovered, and taught myself, to make Irish soda bread at first and then sourdough bread. Every Sunday morning, I have the pleasure of placing one or two sourdough loaves, which I have prepared on Saturday and left proving in the fridge overnight, in the oven in a Le Creuset saucepan. The great… Continue reading We have not bought bread in our house for years
Tag: sourdough bread
A short, vertical video experiment on YouTube
I published a short, vertical video on YouTube yesterday evening at around 9 pm. It was only about 50 seconds long and it was simply me baking sourdough bread at the weekend. There were no words, no speaking but I got a nice piece of music from the free YouTube music library. All the music… Continue reading A short, vertical video experiment on YouTube
A standard operating procedure that works is an invaluable tool
I have been baking sourdough bread for some time now and one thing I have discovered is the secret to a good sourdough loaf: a good, active starter. As I only bake once a week-at the weekend-I always refrigerate my starters (I have two) between bakes. And getting the starter to wake up, so to… Continue reading A standard operating procedure that works is an invaluable tool
The sound of crust cracking and cooling
Christmas day, 2022. The sound in our kitchen is the sound of sourdough bread crust cracking while it cools on the worktop. It’s like the sound of ice thawing. As I write this there are two white loafs proofing on the same worktop. They are for the turkey sandwiches over the next two days. I… Continue reading The sound of crust cracking and cooling
Sourdough starter-the art and science
The secret to great sourdough bread is your starter. I think anyone who makes sourdough bread will agree with me and you cannot spend too much time getting your starter ready to perform. I have two starters: one is from Neven Maguire’s book, “Home Economics for Life”, and is made up of strong white flour,… Continue reading Sourdough starter-the art and science
The definition of happiness
It’s funny the way your definition of happiness or satisfaction changes over the course of your life. Things that made me happy before may or may not float my boat now. But new, surprising things can now give me a great deal of happiness. For example, it is 5.30 AM on a Saturday morning. I… Continue reading The definition of happiness
My no-knead sourdough bread experiment
I’m looking forward to baking a ‘no-knead’ sourdough loaf at the weekend. I came across a video on YouTube this week which shows you how to make an attractive looking sourdough loaf with the minimum of ‘hands on’ activity. Normally, when making a sourdough loaf you would be stretching and folding the dough at intervals… Continue reading My no-knead sourdough bread experiment
Why would a solicitor spend time making a video about baking bread?
I baked a new bread yesterday morning: a brown, honey loaf. It was supposed to be lavender and honey but Tesco in Edenderry or Kinnegad did not have lavender on a November Saturday morning so I had to do with honey only. However, I love honey and have no idea what sort of taste lavender… Continue reading Why would a solicitor spend time making a video about baking bread?
My wholemeal sourdough loaf
This is my wholemeal sourdough loaf, using Neven Maguire’s sourdough bread recipe from his book “Home Economics for Life”. Neven’s recipe calls for 150-175 ml of water but I increased this to 250 ml for this particular loaf as I was trying to get the most open crumb possible. This may not be the most… Continue reading My wholemeal sourdough loaf
What I baked today-sourdough with walnuts and fougasse
I baked a sourdough loaf with walnuts, the starter I use for this one is Jack Sturgess (aka Bake With Jack) starter which is a 100% rye sourdough starter made up of 50g rye flour and 50g water. I made fougasse using the Richard Bertinet recipe from his book, “Dough”