Country White Bread ~ Day One

Sourdough boules proofing in the refrigerator ~

a process that is referred to as retarding

The last time I let you have a peek into my refrigerator I could barely contain my excitement because I was making gravlax for the first time. Making myself wait the full 24 hours for the salmon to cure was torture and I all but parked myself in front of the fridge to try and speed the process by sheer will. Luckily I was able to finally leave well enough alone so that the salmon could do what it needed to do and the end result turned out nicely if I do say so myself. This new cooking project is sort of that situation all over again. The bread, a country white loaf, is a two day process, (longer if you need to make the starter) and I'm already anxious to see the final product. It's a good thing I have Ellie to keep me busy, otherwise I'd be camped in front of the fridge again.

I haven't done any serious baking in quite a few months and I've been missing it, not to mention we haven't had any good homemade bread in that time. I was inspired to start baking bread again, specifically sourdough bread after reading about Marsha's recent attempts at making a starter and baking some bread. I've been slowly teaching myself how to bake bread getting most of my information from the several cookbooks I have on the subject as well as a few websites. I have a looong way to go before I even begin to fully understand the science of baking bread, and a looong way to go before I can bake bread that I can really be proud of, in the meantime I just keep trying.

I decided to try a recipe from Nancy Silverton's Breads From The La Brea Bakery a cookbook I bought a long time ago but never used. I chose Silverton's book because if successful, the bread will tie in nicely with my Is My Blog Burning entry, which will be a recipe from another of Silverton's books.

To say that Silverton is a perfectionist would be the understatement of the year, but don't mistake that to be a negative thing by any means. Silverton is passionate, thorough, and very knowledgeable on the subject of bread and that enthusiasm is quite clear in her book. Silverton takes the reader step by meticulously slow step through the entire process of baking, explaining everything clearly and thoroughly so that even the most amateur of home bakers (read me) can follow along. Some things might seem impractical, like Silverton's insistence that for good bread one must measure room temperature and water temperature, understand what the readings are and compensate for the climate changes, or her daunting bread making schedule which are two or three day, ALL DAY affairs, but trust me, those things can be worked around. Given my limited resources, (not owning a flour scale comes to mind) I'm just trying to bake the best loaf of bread I can using Silverton's book as a guide until the day that I have the time, the resources and the patience to bake bread the way Silverton does.

So, what you see pictured above is the result of Day One, my yeast starter (not Silverton's recipe but my own) mixed with bread flour, water, wheat germ, and salt; given a rest period then kneaded to a smooth ball, allowed to rise for more than five hours, divided, given another rest period then shaped into boules, placed in baskets sprinkled with flour and then into the fridge to rise slowly overnight. Today is baking day and I’m excited to see the results. I’ll be back with pictures and my final thoughts.

Written by Deb on March 4, 2004 01:02 AM