Monday, December 8, 2014

Bread Sponge

I have a problem. 

Through a lack of planning or because of poor memory (or both), I now find myself with a small amount of yeast and a too long period of time before I can buy my usual one pound package of yeast. 

So, I have started a starter.  (Confusing isn't it.) 

And today, I am attempting to make bread using said starter. 

To do so you must use the starter, water and flour to create a sponge.  This can take a minimum of   8hours and up to 24 hours (quick baking of bread is a non starter here). 

Then you add salt, sugar, flour and oil and make the usual dough.  Now it sits for about 2 hours to double.

Then, you form the loaves and bake them for close to one hour.

Add it up, that is a minimum of  11-12 hours.

So, start in the AM and bake in the PM.  EXCEPT.....

The starter I fed last night and sat out (it is normally kept in the frig) to wake up and begin to work again, well it thought it was still in the frig.  (Yep, once the stove goes out the boat can get that cold.)

Consequently, I had to take said starter, re feed it some, and sit it by the solid fuel stove this morning so that I could wake it up and have a hope of making bread today.  It made me a little later than ideal to start that 11-12 hour process.

So think of me as I sit here rather later into the night than usual and wait for my bread to finish.

But I am sure it will make great toast tomorrow morning. :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment