Cooking Cheap

I decided to test my bread making skills by using “yeast in a jar” instead of a sourdough starter. I decided on 70% hyrdation just to see what that looks like in a normal dough. Being lazy, I let the bread machine mix it up. 70% is wet enough that handling the dough is a pain.

Simple recipe for 1 1/2 pound loaf.

• 2 tsp yeast
• 14 oz flour
• 10 oz water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar

I measured the water and mixed the yeast into it. Then I measured the dry stuff and put it in the bread machine. I gave the yeast a few minutes to hydrate and tossed it in to the machine, set the French Bread, Manual setting and hit the start button.

I removed the dough at the end and dumped it in a oiled bowl (remove the machine’s paddle from the dough). After 90 minutes it was ready to shape. I chose to make baquettes, I need the practice. I divided the dough in two. I don’t do a punch down. By the time the dough is out of the bowl and I’ve shaped it, it’s been deflated. The dough was easy enough to work with and really didn’t need a lot of bench flour.
I placed the rolls in my baguatte pan, put that in a plastic garbage bag.

I’m rising everything in the warm spot and it’s not taking very long to finish the rises. I credit that to 1) the warm spot, 2) higher hydration, and 3) letting the yeast soak for a few minutes in the water.

I’m using the finger test. On the first rise, if you poke it and the indendation remains, it’s done (it has to double too). On the second rise, if you poke it and it springs back in a few seconds, it’s ready. No, I can’t remember that either. No sponges, bigas, poolishes or retarding for this bake. I could do sourdough if I wanted the overnight fun.

[After Baking]
There’s good news and bad news. No oven spring to speak of. It tastes fine but it doesn’t have the complex flavors of sourdough. That was expected. The slash marks are slightly more pronounced than my sourdough. The crumb is more uniform than I would have thought. It’s good enough to eat, but not good enough for a picture.

I don’t think my bread machine does the right thing for gluten development, I know, I’ve said that before and have been disappointed every time I use it for artisian bread. I need to put the bread machine in a closet so I’ll never be tempted again.

It’s really not as bad I’m making it sound.