Kneading the dough

Recently I've been experimenting with additional kneading of my sourdough on Saturday mornings. I am happy to report that a good 4-5 minute kneed of the dough, with a 2-3 minute rest before forming of the loaves has improved the overall quality and rise of the baguettes considerably!

Have a great weekend.

-Matt the weekend baker

Always baking

True to my self-imposed nickname I'm a weekend baker.

Every Wednesday night I take the sourdough out of the refrigerator and feed it. Thursday morning, Thursday night and Friday morning I feed it again. Every Friday night I make two batches of sourdough bread with my slow-rise technique. Every Saturday morning I wake up, pre-heat the oven and shape & proof the loaves.

This sort of routine has almost turned into a ritual. Last night I recited my recipe (listed on the right) from memory for my wife who was helping me mix the batch. There's something very satisfying about the smell of fresh baked bread to me. Cutting into the loaf and savoring the complex aromas and flavor that I coax from just four ingredients.

I may not be a weekend blogger, but I am and always will be a weekend baker.

-Matt the weekend baker

Never too busy to Bake bread...

Things have been crazy busy at work recently. A good friend of mine (who is also a baker) commented that he hoped I would have time to bake bread this weekend (the last two weekends I've had to work).

My response was simple - I'm NEVER too busy to bake bread, but sometimes I just don't find time to post to my blog.

We talked for a bit about baguettes and the time & temperature techniques for them. I've been so enthralled with the dutch oven concept that I had almost forgotten all the tricks I learned for baguettes.

Basically the same recipie for sourdough (or regular dough) works. When you are shaping the loaf be sure to cut it in half and roll it into a baguette form, pressing a seam down the middle with your thumbs and then folding it over so the seam side is down. They bake at 450 for about 35 minutes, but in the first three minutes you must spray water into the oven every three minutes. This is where having a large hot iron pot in the oven is helpful because it instantly turns the water into steam. This helps develop the crust for the baguettes.

Give it a try yourself!
-Matt the weekend baker