First time making soudough

[pigeonseed]

I'm really excited, someone gave us some 'herman' starter to make a cake, but I went off-piste and used some to make bread.

I used a French country bread recipe, and it was a bit daunting, with loads of stages, but finally by tea time today it was ready, and it was delicious!  :) :) :)

I'm so pleased. I'm going to try a shorter recipe now, 24 hours. See if it's as nice. I can't be taking 2 days to make bread very often!

Anyway, just had to share the excitement.

[pigeonseed]

[BarriedaleNick]

Fun init!
Making a loaf now - well it's in the proving stage!!

[antipodes]

That was long!  Sounds a lot of faffing!
I now do sourdough bread, it's so delicious! But I have discovered that I get better results making a "sponge" the night before - mix the amount of water with 2 tablespoons of the starter and part of the flour (about 1/4 of it). I sloosh that around together and leave it overnight. It gets very bubbly!
Then the next day I add the rest of the ingredients. put it on dough cycle in the bread machine (but you could hand mix it), leave it 90 minutes, take it out, shape it, fold it over, and leave it again to rise about another 90 minutes. Then in the oven!

[pigeonseed]

The first one started off with an evening sponge making. But I think it took 2 days because it was partly growing the sponge over a couple of feeds, as the flour and water were added bit by bit and one small lump of starter produced 3 loaves.

The one which is proving now is a fast one - sponge last night, dough this morning, knock back lunchtime - bake this afternoon. But smaller quantity for more starter.

Anyway, by trial and error I'll see which one I like most I suppose.

[antipodes]

Oh it's quite hit and miss! Sometimes you do exactly the same thing and teh bread is quite different. It's really a living organism.
I made brioche last week, it didn't rise at all, but I was determined so I stuck it in a cake tin and put it in the fridge. Next morning it had trebled in size! I put it straight in teh oven, sugar/milk glaze halfway through cooking, it turned out wonderfully!
There is a lot of trial and error. Still, the eating is the fun bit!

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

Whenever I make bread, I try to leave some leftover dough in the fridge, well watered till it's slack to incorporate in the next batch. By the time I make the next batch it can smell winey and sour. I think it improves the flavour of the bread.
While we are on the subject of bread, I expect many of us put seeds like fennel or caraway in to flavour loaves. May I suggest dried lavender flowers. I usually make a lavender loaf and it's great. Excellent with jam and makes a super bread and butter pudding with sliced dried apricots.