First off, what is with this frigid weather? Another freeze warning for tonight in southern Connecticut, sigh. I've given up trying to find coverings big enough for the hydrangeas, so.....hoping for the best. Most of mine are in fairly sheltered locations, and/or close to the foundation of the house, and all get the early morning sun. Not at the top of my list of things to lose sleep over.
Now, to get to the title of this post.....I think I have enough flour!
Someone directed me to a seller not too far away (wholesale, but they do sell retail) and my bag of King Arthur flour arrived yesterday. All 50 pounds of it. Funny looks from the FedEx guy notwithstanding, it's my security blanket. It is, unfortunately, the commercial version of "all purpose" flour, but that's okay and most needed. I use a lot of all purpose for feeding the beast sourdough starter, and it's also useful for cakes, etc. Last night I made a batch of "pie crumbs" (check this on King Arthur Flour website....you premix the flour, shortening, salt and cold butter in your mixer, then freeze in individual portions in zip locs for future pie crusts. When you feel like you need a pie, add the specified ice water and, voila....you have a pie crust!) not for pie but for quiche. Quiche is great for freezer storage and I love things that I can eat hot or cold. Back to flour.
The first challenge was getting this huge bag into the house. FedEx guy nicely dumped it in the garage, and I do have a hand cart (one of my first purchases after being widowed). I did fine till I got to the step up from the weaving studio into the family room. It has a lip and no way would that thing cooperate. Plan B....take flour off the cart, slide the bag up the step, rinse and repeat. There was another one of those from family room into hallway leading into the kitchen. (Pics to follow.) Finally, success. View this photo
It was actually more of a struggle to get the damn bag to stand upright, but I finally got it up, cut open the top and started shoveling! I had purchased several Cambro plastic storage buckets and guessed right on the size: 22 quart bucket holds 25 pounds with room left over. 25 pounds is still heavy, but more manageable for me. So, I'm good for now, but really wouldn't mind getting my paws on 25 pounds of bread flour, just saying.
I finally got an order from King Arthur placed early in the month and did manage to snag some backordered flour at that time. In the order were two ten-pound bags of all purpose (did not plan that well), but also some bread flour. That was a good thing because I now have the perfect sourdough baguette recipe and it uses bread flour. So does my Hamelman Pullman bread recipe...forgot how wonderful that one is! But, back to the Perfect Sourdough Baguette.
I took a KA recipe for sourdough baguettes that was merely okay and tweaked it a bit. Well, a lot. Not so much with the ingredients, but with proportions. If there is one thing I know at this point it's that really wet doughs make the best bread! So I reduced the amount of flour when it was an option. You know how recipes will say "2 to 3 cups of flour"....I went with the lesser amount. It was very sticky, and adding flour to prevent that is defeating the purpose, so I went back to a few bread cookbooks and found some tricks. Richard Bertinet has an interesting method for "working the dough" (we don't knead anymore, apparently), and I've seen some techniques on the KAF Isolation Baking shows on every Friday. It worked. Next up, I changed the bulk ferment time from 90 minutes on the counter to 90 minutes on counter with 3 "stretch and folds", then into the fridge with the bucket for an overnight ferment. Next day I formed and baked and WOWZA! I could not believe what a difference between the results of the first baking using the recipe, and this bake with my modifications. Oh, did I mention that what I really love is that the recipe uses TWO CUPS of sourdough starter, and it doesn't have to be all that ripe, either? So, think discard, or newly fed starter and it keeps that starter from taking over the fridge.
Next project is going to be masks, I'm afraid. Not that I'm venturing out much, but we now have an "edict" to wear one when in public if we can't social distance. Unless we can't wear them for some reason, but we aren't obliged to provide proof that we can't wear them. Right. I've seen some cute ones on Pinterest, but that's as far as I've gone. Lord knows I have enough fabric to make a bunch.....
Keep calm, and try bread baking if nothing else works!
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