Cooking Cheap

I went to bed late, I got up late. While the coffee was brewing, we had another power failure. I probably said something like “well, that’s annoying”. Fortunately there was one cup of coffee in the pot when the power went out, otherwise it really would have been really ugly because the biga was happily bubbling and the very last thing I want to do in the morning without coffee is make bread.

Surprisingly the bread actually looks pretty good, it’s still too hot to cut but I can tell by looking that it’s going to be somewhere between good and really good. I might take a picture after I cut it, I might not. I now recognize “oven spring”. It’s an amazing thing because getting the loaf onto the peel after the second rise was a problem (as predicted by the recipe, it deflated a bit). It’s a big loaf to be free formed. How big? It barely fit on the peel or the unglazed ceramic tile (12″ X 12″) I baked it on. 6 C of flour, 2.5 of water. Big. I thought about making two loaves out of it, but that would be a different path. Let’s see where this one goes before backing up.

I got lucky getting Godzilla off the peel or maybe I’m getting some skill with the peel. The tile broke half way through the baking though and it was the first time I’d used it. It’s a very distictive “click” when the tile breaks. They are dirt cheap but I don’t want to go to Home Depot every time I want to bake bread. The tile should last for more than one bake. The one I used in the sourdough experiments lasted for quite a few oven cycles. I have a hypothesis.

What was really new this time? A yeast biga and a sourdough sponge are not different in technique nor is the dough different at the first and second rise any different in handling. What I think is different is using a cast iron pan to hold the water for steam. Previously I used a cake pan. A ceramic tile and a cast iron skillet have a lot of thermal mass when you heat them to 500F. The recipe warns about putting the boiling water in the pan and I’ll repeat that warning, It boils like you’ve never seen and even if you’re careful, your hand is just millimeters away from 500F steam. I seem to be OK but it was spectacular and it was scary. It’s not something the drive-by baker should attempt.

But the oven spring? Wowza! In bread time, that dough with all it’s faults was headed for the moon on a rocket ship. It even broke the launch pad. Aside from the quality of the tile, I suspect it’s the cast iron steam machine that stressed the launch pad. I think I’ll re-season the skillet too. Can’t hurt and I think I’ll cure the next tile. Just run it up to 300F or so a couple of times. Or maybe I should soak it water before baking? Or both?

[Update]
I did good. The chew, the texture is as good as anything I’ve had and I’ve had some pretty good bread. You have to use all your teeth, front and back and it bites at you when you do. This is bread. Sure, some more tunnels would be nice and it probably won’t keep until tomorrow but what a treat. I did really good. I may have to stop baking because of the hurdle I’ve set. Damn, I may have to find a new hobby. It was that good. I’m not sure that going for better would be smart.

[update 3/21/05]
It’s been on the to-do list for a long time - the sourdough starter in the fridge. Two of them and they’ve been there for a year, unused. One was fed all purpose flour, one was fed bread flour. Neither one really has the taste I want. Time to go. It would also be a fine opportunity to learn about recharging an old starter. If it works, I learn something. If it doesn’t, I learn something. The bread flour starter gets a temporary stay of execution. The AP has met the death of gallons of hot water and the municipal sewer system (where it may live and flourish for all I know). For the other sample, I stirred the hooch back in until smooth and removed a cup of goo (roughly half of the stuff) Added a cup of bread flour and a cup of water and it’s sitting on the counter until tomorrow evening when I’ll take another cup or so out and replace it with I cup flour and I cup water.

Assuming that it survives, I’ll dry a portion, just in case, and I’ll bake something with it. Then it too is likely to meet the sewer system. There’s no real point except curiosity for keeping a starter you don’t like that much. What might be interesting is creating my own starter from wild yeast. My thought is to do that with some rye flour mixed in with the bread flour. It’s takes a different mix of yeast strains to eat rye or so I’ve read. And the rye flour I have is so old, I might as well do a science experiment with it.

– 3/19/05 –
Turns out the starter is inactive, so I must have killed it from lack of attention. Even if it did perk up after another 24 hours, I really won’t miss it. (Obviously, since that’s how it died). It’s for the better. The two of them were hiding a lot of stuff in the fridge that also has to go.

– 3/20/05 –
The starter kind of foamed a tiny bit overnight so there’s something in there that’s still alive, but it smells like flour and water and not sourdough. But what the hey, remove a cup, add a cup. Maybe tomorrow.

– 3/21/05 –
Nope. I put the mess in the bit bucket.