Ok, so we now have our sourdough starter sitting ominously in a jar at the back of the fridge gently seeping brown water. Time to make some bread. For a recipe I turn to the Observer Organic Allotment Blog and follow their elaborate and long-winded instructions to the letter.
Preparation time: a wasted 48 hours
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Skill level: wizard, master of dark arts
Ingredients
- strong white flour
- warm water
- blood
- sweat
- tears
I’ll not bother writing up the recipe as it is not worth the pixels it is written on.
After two days of low level anxiety I ended up with a kilo of clammy slop indelibly stuck to a tea-towel.
A clumsy visual metaphor
Too runny to form into a loaf I determindly poured this doughy schlem into a bread tin and waited all evening for something to happen. Tired and way past my bedtime I eventually shoved it in the oven in the optimistic hope that the next 40 minutes would produce a miracle.
The result was more ballast than loaf. I think I can safely say it lacked the characteristic lightness and crunch of traditional sourdough.
Verdict: Not a good start although in true Masterchef style I am 110% determined to succeed.
Drink: Driven to it.
Entertainment: The penultimate episode of ‘The Wire’, Season 4. “Yo, tickle my nuts”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Nicolas // Sep 19, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Could you please put the recepie online? or maybe only mail it to me, i’d love to try an dark arts recepie ^^, love something that is hard to make
2 richard // Sep 19, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Hi Nicolas
I’ll be giving a different recipe a go over the next week or two and will post it up if it is a success. In the meantime, here is the recipe I tried (and failed).
Good luck … or why don’t you try the Chewy Light Rye Bread - it’s dark, fairly involved and very, very tasty.
R
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