Bread by Daniel Stevens, part of the River Cottage Handbook series, has been my guide into baking sourdough bread. Yesterday I had a go at the River Cottage sourdough bread. this is 3 parts white flour to 1 part rye and follows the usual pattern of making a sponge the night before, kneading in the morning, allowing to ferment through the day and then prove early evening. The result was a nice, lighter well-risen bread that has made excellent toast with marmite. Tomorrow I am going to have a go at my first white sourdough bread to see if I can bake one of those breads with large air holes.
I'm really excited to have received a copy of Mick Hartley's Bethesdabasics: Sourdough Made Simple - Techniques & Recipes from Bethesdabakers through the post yesterday. I read it in one sitting and have a much better understanding of how to maintain my starter and prepare ahead for each baking day. There are 13 basic recipes and I hope to share some photos as I attempt each one. Why not get your own copy here?
Lazy Sunday. I went to a Quaker meeting this morning and then on the way home I picked some more wild garlic by the river. Last week's wild garlic pesto was a great success, I used it in a number of pasta dishes and flavoured a tasty bulgar wheat salad to take to work for lunch which received some positive comments. I used the traditional combination of parmesan, olive oil and pine nuts but I have an idea for a more English combination....
Keep picking the garlic. I had some gorgeous pesto this weekend made (not by me) with alexanders, dandelion leaves, watermint, white dead nettles and wild garlic. I have just been eating it on toast for supper. I sub either a hard goats cheese or sheeps cheese for parmesan and you can easily use another nut like almonds or hazelnuts. Look forward to hearing what you come up with and seeing the results of your baking. That loaf looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouragement, Joanne. I was just about to comment on your blog about what went into the forager's pesto.
ReplyDeleteMy pesto idea has a yorkshire theme... I like your suggestions... hazelnuts sound great.
I have added another photo to this post. I describe it as Zeb-inspired - there was some sunshine coming through the kitchen window this morning so I plonked the remaining loaf in it, positioned the marmite et voila!
That's very sweet of you! I sloped off to the Downs today on a quest to see if I could identify alexanders and I found them - I don't think I would have ever registered what they were had I not gone over to Stroud at the weekend. I've added your blog to my links page. I think it's great!
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