The taste was still on my lips and in my
mouth as I slowly made my way through the morning commute. It reminded
me of my failure over the last few days. With nothing else to do with
my brain I replayed the events leading up to that morning.
For
more years than I can remember, it has been an interest -- near
obsession -- of mine. I’m not sure why, but I know it began with
wanting to make my own pizza as a child. Today, while I still yearn for
that perfect home made pizza, my current goal is sour dough bread.
I’ve
been baking breads for some years now. I would characterize the
results as being successful. That is, of course, according to everyone
else. The bread is eaten and never lasts long. The kids love the
“salty bread” (baguettes) and soft pretzels. Whenever anybody brings
bread to church its assumed I made it.
But for me, the
elusive true sour dough bread has not come forth from my oven as yet.
This week, I decided to try a new method based on a sour dough baking
vlog I discovered from an actual chef. It looked promising and seemed
to address the issues I felt I was having.
The problem with
sour dough is that you don’t just mix up a recipe and pop it in the
oven. Its a more involved process. There are steps. And timing. Its a
formula of sorts. And yet there is a lot to it that is just intuition
and experience. This seems to be the appeal for me. Baking bread,
programming a computer, restoring a classic car. Sequences, steps,
processes, methodology, puzzles and problems. These are things that get
me going!
Everything seemed to be going well. The sour
starter was bubbling as described. The sponge left overnight looked,
well, spongy. After adding the deceptively simple ingredients of salt,
sugar, oil and flour, I proceeded to knead. I could tell something
didnt seem quite right at this point, but it was coming along like it
always does. I left the dough to rise all day.
When I got
home, I could see the dough had indeed risen, but then fell slightly. I
pulled out the dough, folded it, formed it into the baguette shapes and
left it to rise a final time.
In the morning, it had not
risen. I knew I had no choice at this point but to bake it and hope for
the best. While baking it did expand a bit, like it is supposed to,
but not enough. When it came out, it was hard and dense. I had just
invented hardtack.
I was severely disappointed, because this
was to be my lunch. I had already cooked a corned beef the night
before. I had the sauerkraut I made last week. I had a plan! Yes, I
am obsessed not just with bread but with the idea of making complex
meals entirely from scratch. My other goal goes back to my childhood
pizza experiments, and now consists of making mozzarella from scratch,
as well as the sauce, and the crust.
I made the sandwich
anyway. My son, an early riser, was excited. He passed on the bread
after eating a few bites, but he didn’t recoil in horror. Honey Nut
Cheerios just seemed a better fit. Then I tasted the bread. It was
hard, and chewy, but not in the good way a baguette should be - lightly
crunchy on the outside, with a soft smooth crumb on the inside. No,
this was dense. But oh my! Was it sour! It was really sour. Over an
hour later I could still taste the sour on my lips.
So, it
was an epic fail. Or was it? My goal this time around was to finally
get that sour dough flavor, and not just the “salty bread” flavor my
kids seem to love. Well, I sure scored big time on the sour flavor! It
was just too much and the bread texture was wrong. Its so sour I
started thinking of ways I could dry out the bread and grind it to a
powder and use it as sour flavoring in quick breads.
And
there it was. A failure turned into a success of sorts, and the fruits
of the failure repurposed for some future productive use. Maybe this
weekend I will try again.
