Wowza! Alice in Wondoughland (the sourdough starter with a quirky name) was definitely on steroids this morning when I made the dough for this Sourdough Cinnamon Babka. The rise was fantastic, the proof was solid and then when I went to bake it up, it almost overflowed the pan yet again. Overall another successful attempt at turning a yeasted recipe into a sourdough. Very pleased.
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Breads
As I have mentioned before, I am spending some time re-creating my “usual” yeasted recipes into sourdough recipes. This particular bread, Sourdough Cranberry Walnut Artisan Breakfast Bread, has actually worked out very well with the sourdough starter. It took me a little bit to get the baker’s ratio right, but once I’ve gotten the hydration level right, it’s been a breeze. It’s also one of my most popular varieties of bread in general. 🙂
I decided to play a little bit with some different flours. In this case, it is still a wheat flour, but a different variety, an “older” style called einkorn, in this case, all-purpose einkorn (whole wheat einkorn is also available). The first thing that I noticed is that the flour itself is slightly yellower. It is also a bit finer, almost like cake flour feeling. I wasn’t sure of the ability of the flour to create a good internal structure, so I did add a bit of bread flour. The flour also smelled wheatier, which seemed promising. Now, the dough was spectacular — very smooth and had a soft, malleable feel, and Alice was particularly active and I got a great rise. The slightly disappointing thing is that I didn’t get great lift in the actual loaf as you can see from the pictures. It is soft, has great chew and the crust is phenomenal. The flavor is great too. I’ll just have to work on getting an airier interior. That said, the loaf *looks* amazing and I can definitely see why bread art is a thing!
I made another focaccia. It seems that whenever I don’t know what the make when I need to feed Alice in Wonderdoughland, I fall back to a focaccia. They are easy, forgiving and delicious. This is going to serve as my lunch for the nxt few days, but would also make a great side to a soup, a charcuterie platter, with a nice salad and a glass of wine. The Gorgonzola got all melty and is tart compared to the rest of the bread. Another winner to add to the rotation.