Sourdough Diaries | My Best Loaf Yet
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My first baguettes
I made baguettes today for the first time. They are made with a 65% hydration dough, and I used instant yeast rather than my sourdough starter because I have a big stash of instant yeast that needs using and I didn’t want to feel disappointed if I spent 24 hours making a dough only to mess up the shaping and scoring! Thankfully, my first attempt at shaping and scoring baguettes went much better than expected, and they taste delicious!
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Sourdough Diaries | On Doing Things ‘Properly’
Four years ago today, I mixed equal parts flour and water in an attempt to make my own sourdough starter. It wasn’t my first foray into sourdough, or bread for that matter. Ed and I have made bread for years. Mum taught me how to make bread when I was a child, and Ed and I have always made quick rise loaves using instant yeast. They’re much tastier than supermarket bread, and they are quick and easy to make. The bread you get from throwing ingredients in the mixer and leaving the dough to rise just once in tins is perfectly adequate for toast and sandwiches, but it’s nothing spectacular.
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Adventures in Sourdough | The Rye Edition
I have been making sourdough for about eighteen months now, but it’s only recently that I’ve felt like I’ve got the hang of it. Yesterday I bought some new varieties of flour to experiment with different types of sourdough. This loaf is 25% rye and 75% plain white, and the crumb is perfect. It’s not too heavy but the rye gives it a lovely flavour. I don’t weigh my ingredients like I would for a cake because I’ve been making bread for years and can eyeball what looks right in terms of dry to wet, but I do use measuring cups to make sure that the balance of flours is correct.
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