Of course, it was 65 degrees in the house, and it needs to be 70 - 80 for the dough to rise. Time to pull out the space heater. The laundry room is the smallest room in the house and easy to heat up with the dryer running (without heating the rest of the house). WHATEVER WORKS!
The loaf in the back rose in the proofing basket ( you can see the bamboo pattern).
The loaf in the front rose in a glass bread pan.
Both baked in the cloche. Yum!
As a side note, I think I broke my fridge yesterday. I yanked out a piece of Pergo that was probably only 2 inches underneath the fridge, but right under the front foot where the door hinge is located. For whatever reason, now the door won't seal. There was a 1/4" gap. The fridge is 10 years old and hasn't had a great seal for a while now...too much weight in that big door.
I had to go to Lowes anyway, so to tide us over until we are ready to buy a new fridge, the child safety lock will have to do! It's kind of a pain to buckle it every time we close it, but....WHATEVER WORKS! Better than duct tape, I tell ya.
Oh, leave it to you to forge on ahead no matter what. The bread looks amazing. I don't know if I need to hear whether it tasted as good as it looks, but I'm asking anyway....was it? That fridge fix is awesome! You are a smarty pants!
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty good, but not quite as sour as that very first loaf. You're supposed to feed the starter at room temp for 2 days before baking and I only remembered to pull it out of the fridge about 12 hours ahead (and fed it twice), so maybe that's the problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to experiment by refrigerating the dough for a few days before the 18 hour rise...that's supposed to make it more sour. It's kinda fun to have an ongoing experiment that provides yummy bread along the way. I brought my second loaf to work to share today.
Big discovery of the week: no extra effort to just make 2 loaves at once! 2 loaves; 1 mess.
You are truly a woman of all trades! Your bread looks wonderful.
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