not so sour dough
I decided to do some baking today since my starter was going great guns, so last night before bed I got a sponge going, and today made some sweet dough with it, using half whole wheat and half unbleached flour. Ended up making a loaf of sandwich bread in my larger, clay loaf pan, a smaller loaf with orange-cinnamon-sugar blend swirled through the center of it, and then a small batch of orange-cinnamon sweet rolls in my ceramic pie plate. I tasted a small bit of the dough before shaping the loaves and rolls, and it’s nicely sweet with a terrific tang to it from the sourdough. I think the tang will complement the orange-cinnamon in the rolls and small loaf. When they come out of the oven, I’ll glaze the rolls and loaf with a powdered sugar and half & half glaze, and will brush the sandwich loaf with some butter.
The dough had a wonderful texture this morning after I mixed it up from the sponge and set it in my dough bucket to rise. In around an hour and a half, it had more than doubled, and was a silky, moist (but not sticky) dough. To look at how high and fluffy it became, you’d swear it had to have store-bought yeast in it, but it was all from the sourdough. I enjoy that so much! Makes me feel like a magician.
Other than the baking, I’m not sure what I’ll be cooking today. Supper tonight is still a mystery to me. I do have some ground turkey thawing in the fridge, but it’s still frozen as yet. It may become chili in a day or two. I’m not feeling in the mood to do anything that takes a lot of effort, so I may end up asking Jeff to pick up some meat and cheese at the deli, and we can make sandwiches using the fresh-baked bread. Then again, I know we’ll all want to dig into the sweet rolls tonight, so perhaps I should consider making something that *won’t* involve bread for supper… We’ll see what inspires me as the day progresses.
The pic is lousy, of course. This stupid camera drives me nuts. But the rolls were perfect! Danny and I each had one fresh from the oven, after I’d flipped them out on a sheet and glazed them — we ate them with forks, after melting small pats of butter on them. Life is good, and we’re spoiled!
The loaves are baking now, and I’ll take (equally crappy, I’m sure) photos of them when they come out of the oven. I wish I could do them justice in the pics, as this bread is really quite a treat.
This is the orange-cinnamon swirl bread, glazed.
This is a pic of the sandwich loaf.
And this is a pic of the sweet loaf and the sandwich loaf side by side. The sandwich loaf looks glazed, too, but that’s just the butter melting on the crust.
By the way, supper is resolved. Jeff is going to eat leftover tortellini in brodo, and Danny and I will be having some ground round patties, with slivers of sharp cheddar, and apple wedges on the side. I know, I know, no veggies tonight. Ah well, it won’t hurt for one night.
