Why, oh, why???

Is it October and the fruit flies are still #$^! everywhere???

Luckily, I have a tent!

Here, it’s sheltering two sourdough breads I made yesterday – one for our family, one for a friend who had a baby.  (I sent the bread with a lasagna… one cannot live on bread alone!)

I used Peter Reinhart’s basic Pain au Levain from p. 61 of Artisan Breads Every Day.  Indeed, it turned out so well, crusty outside, tender and moist with HUGE openings inside, that we could DEFINITELY eat bread like this every day.

I had almost forgotten. 

I don’t own this book, despite drooling over it countless times from the library, so I used my becoming-standard trick of perusing the book using Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature.  I took a quick screenshot of the recipe so I wouldn’t have to print it out.

And, of course, I used my amazing Sourdough Spreadsheet again. 

It was helpful, because the recipe called for 458g of 60% starter, and I only had 352g, so it told me exactly how much extra flour and water I needed to add to the recipe to compensate.  I wish the spreadsheet were easier to work with, and then I would definitely make it available…

But it really isn’t, and because I’m usually in a hurry when I’m tossing new recipes into it, I probably won’t develop it into a real Thing.  So there it is, rough edges and all.

And the bread was delicious!  I only have one dutch oven, so I baked my friend’s in there (I use the instructions from Artisan Bread in Five, which work out perfectly every time) and ours on my regular double-thick cookie sheet… now that I have no baking stone.

Waah.  No baking stone!?  One got broken, one got fleishiked (meatball fat dripped down onto it)… well, there it is.  And still – the bread was delicious.