ahhhh, the FUN side of yeast

I am so amazed at the power of yeast. The fun side of yeast, actually. The NOT SO FUN side of yeast is what I deal with at work...meaning infections. NOT SO FUN.

Yesterday I made 3 beautiful loaves of whole wheat sourdough bread and 25 pizzas for our Quality Department Gathering yesterday. We, of COURSE used the wood fired clay oven. It worked beautifully and was a lot of fun.

The bread and pizza dough began a full week earlier. Here's the story:

Many years ago I started making bread....BEFORE the OVEN (BO). I used the yeast I bought at the store and all purpose flour. It was pretty good....hey....ANY bread made at home is better than almost anything you can get at a grocery store - at least then. NOW....people are asking for better bread and stores are responding with better bread. Excellent crust with good crumb and it even tastes good. STILL not as good as home baked.

THEN...not so much - 20 years ago. So, I started making bread when I had the time (at the time I worked part-time). With 3 boys and a husband you can imagine how long it took to disappear. It was pretty good! There were a few times when I ran out of time and didn't get around to actually baking the bread. The dough took on a life of it's own.....while I wasn't looking. It started smelling soooo good....sour.....like sourdough. Now I KNEW about sourdough but hadn't made any. Golden opportunity! Knocking the dough down, reformed the loaf and baked. WONDERFUL! So, research into sourdough told me (at that time....a trip to the library) that I needed a save some dough and keep it for a starter for next time. RATS....baked all of it. Further research said to try again. HEY, the miners and loggers in the west had been doing this for years without going to Safeway....I could too. So, tried it again.....old dough BUT it tasted different. WHY.....a different strain of course! This one was better in fact. OK, I saved some and kept it in the refrigerator. I re-used the started the next time and always saved some in a glass jar in the refrigerator - for next time. Awesome. Sometimes it would die.....sad. NO Problem.....make a new one. Yeast is cheap! AND.....turns out my kitchen has it's own strain......for bread. I leave a mix of water and flour with some sugar open in a bowl and it automatically grows a strain of yeast that is perfect for bread. You might say my kitchen is COLONIZED with the perfect sourdough yeast.

See......yeast....the fun, yummy side.

The sourdough bubbling away

The loaves resting and rising in the bakers cloth

Today....I'm starting an other batch of dough to bake some bread for our yearly family gathering tomorrow. Took some of my trusty starter out of the crock I just bought from King Arthur Flour (the best flour - bar none). It's solid with red accents and has an honored spot in the back corner of the refrigerator. Mixed up a "Biga" of the starter with warm water, flour and sugar. Let that sit in my warm kitchen overnight.....oooooooh, magic happens! It's nice an bubbly! Added some more warm water, more flour, a bit of honey....olive oil and salt......mixed it up.....covered it again to grow/rise. More magic....Now it fills the bowel! I'll punch it down, take it out and mix in more flour to turn it into a nice soft cushy ball. Turn it into a well oiled bowl and refrigerate it overnight (tonight). In the morning, I'll divide it up into loaves - 3 or more...depending. Let them warm and rise in my linen bread cloth. About 3 pm I'll fire up the oven again. When it's about 500 degrees F the loaves will go in and I'll spray some water into the oven. This will INSTANTLY turn to steam. (It's important I don't have my face near the door - super HOT steam) and close the oven door. After 10 min I'll peek and maybe turn the loaves for even baking. Close the door again and wait about 20 more min. Check the loaves by tapping. They should be nice and toasty brown and when tapped....sound hollow. Take them out....let them cool (about 30-40 min). Then they're ready to slice to use with my goat cheese, fig and balsamic jam, and honey........ahhhhhh.

Are you drooling yet?

More PICS to follow!