As the year of the Ox transitions into the year of the Tiger, my bread has settled into another steady state. So here’s worth another update.
As for the past couple of years, I’m happily using the cast iron loaf pan, which gives a nice crust all around. Towards the end of 2021, I tried cooking two loaves at a time, but our stainless steel loaf pan doesn’t pop out the bread nearly so easily.
My recent return to the basics has continued to bear fruit with consistent success, even though the process takes a little more time.
I start by refreshing the starter. Mix 20g starter, 20g flour, 20g water and let it sit all day until happy and bubbly. Repeat again if the original starter is looking grouchy.
On to the main dough!
60g starter (previously mixed)
(a ratio of 20:80:100:2)
240g water
300g flour (currently organic brand from Costco)
6g salt
As always, I mix the first three ingredients to autolyze for half an hour and add the salt before the first fold.
Lately, I’ve started adding 40g of raisins (non-soaked). It adds a sweet tartness and makes for an out-of-this-world butter toast.
My baking tends to settle into a steady-state before something comes out of the blue to mess it all up (again). But at some point, things must finally settle down, right? Maybe this is the apotheosis of my sourdough baking?
I guess I just have to wait (and bake) to find out.
Three nights ago, I had a dream where I conducted a performance art piece airbrushing a continuous line throughout two rooms in a coffee shop. It was a strangely emotional dream as a crumpled to the floor at the end of the performance.
Two nights ago, I dreamed about ordering an espresso at a coffee shop. I was worried about how the caffeine might affect me (I haven’t had any since the pandemic started), and I contemplated whether I should wait till March because I could then claim that I had gone a full two years of eating only homemade (or frozen) means prepared by family members.
Last night, I dreamt about taxing a B-1 bomber around time trying to find the tarmac so we could take off.
I wonder if logging the dreams on this blog post is making me more likely to remember them. Is the vividness of the dreams related to a practice of recording them?
The brain is weird. Worry not, these footnotes have nothing to do with bread.