Battle #1 Results: Sourdough Wins!

Hands down, the real sourdough bread won.  Dad described it a having a thicker, crispier crust with a tasty sour flavor while the inside was moist and chewy.  The NKB, on the other hand, had a nice crispy/buttery crust but there was a huge lack of flavor compared to the sourdough.  It was fluffy inside but not much flavor or texture besides that.   

I shaped them around 6 when I got home and baked them around 10:30 for about an hour.  My dad has gobbled down about 8 slices already, and I just finished baking both about an hour ago.  I hope I still have some left for the work potluck tomorrow... And my starter is smelling a bit funky/intensely sour... I hope that supposed to happen. :)

Anyways, here are some pictures! (the bread had already been "broken" by the time I got around to taking pictures).  In all of these pictures, the sourdough is the one on the right, and the NKB is the one on the left.  Both got poofy but didn't rise super big - I think it's because the containers they proofed in were big so the blobs of dough just spread out before rising.  Oh well, still delicious. :)  I will try and post Mark Bittman's sourdough recipe here.   It's super easy, I promise.  It just takes a bit of time /planing but is definitely worth the wait and effort! :)

Battle #1: No Knead Bread vs. Sourdough Bread Bake Off!

I couldn't really think of what to write about an intro for this blog so I decided that I may as well just jump right in and start blogging.

I've just started a new experiment using two different sourdough recipes. One is Nancy Leson's "No Knead Bread" and the other is derived from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything".

The NKB is a mixture of bread flour, salt, white vinegar, yeast, lager beer, and water. I've used this recipe more than 8 times, and the results have been fantastic: a fluffy crispy bread that is super simple to make. I've even taken to mixing it up, adding whole cloves of garlic before the proofing phase, and rosemary also adds a nice touch. Using whole wheat flour makes the bread a little denser but at least you get that "healthy" feeling while eating the bread. This recipe is a bit demanding though, requiring a heavy investment of a dutch oven to give it that golden buttery crust, which in actuality makes the purchase worth it.

However, I had gotten bored of the NKB. It's a no brainer to make. I was itching to try something more authentic: real sourdough bread [ or as real as you can get in a home kitchen] . So I looked at the handy dandy cook bible that Dave got me for my birthday last year and found a pretty simple recipe for sourdough bread, starter and all. I mixed the starter for the first time about 2 weeks ago, and have made 3 or so loaves of bread since then. [Side note: I'm always reminded of Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" chapter about his bread man begging Anthony to "feeeeeed the starterrrr"; great book, you gotta read it.] Anyways, I've been feeding my starter, and experimenting on/off with whole wheat flours and bread flours. This recipe is pretty simple, just consisting of flour, water, yeast, and salt. And the result is a fluffy and chewy bread with a light touch of sour flavor that really satisfies the pallet.

Overall, I'll say that King Arthur's Bread Flour has produced the best results in both bread recipes. I'm doing a head to head competition right now. I've got 1 loaf of each rising in the oven for their 8+ hour beauty naps; I'll shape and proof them after I get home from work and bake them off. I have found that if you shape your bread, place it in an empty oven that has been on for 30 seconds, that slight bit of heat really helps the bread rise beautifully before baking off.

Well, I wrote more that I expected. I guess it's easy to when you're taking about delicious things. Hopefully this blog takes off. We'll see. I'll post later once the breads are done and give you the low-down on the bread smack down.