Adventures in Sourdough

After my fabulous sourdough lesson last week, I thought it was time to get moving and finish the loaves that were started 7 days ago. We prepared the dough in the session up to stage where all of the kneading had been done but non of the rising had occurred. Last Sunday when I brought the dough home, I placed it into the fridge as Yoke told us that we could do this for up to 5 days. I was a little worried as I had left it a week.

I let the dough get back to room temperature for about an hour and then gave it a gentle stretch to strengthen the gluten.

After a 15 minutes rest (the dough, not me) I divided the dough into two loaves - one for a tin and one to be freeform. For the freeform loaf, the dough was stretched and then some dried apricots and walnuts were generously sprinkled before it was rolled up.

I also bought a lovely little loaf tin from Yoke after the lesson. It is a great size and the dough from the basic recipe should make 2 loaves of this size.

Both loaves were left to rise for a few hours until they had doubled. This took a little longer than I had expected as the weather was quite cool here today. I left the loaves covered by a damp tea towel on the front seat of the car to warm up.

The results are great and I know that there is so much to learn about how the process works best. I am excited about having another go during the week.

Take care.