Baking Bread 33

I really haven’t got the time to bake bread at the moment but the freezer was empty – so what was I supposed to do?

I tried out a new sourdough bread, a wheat sourdough, by an American baker. On Facebook, I had come across this video about Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread . It sounded intriguing, a bread everyone can make. And also to leave the shaped bread in the fridge overnight holds a big appeal.

I searched the interwebs for a recipe and at first only found some that need like a kilo of flour to make a sourdough starter and similar such madness. In the end I ended up on Ploetzblog, a fantastic German blog about bread baking. So I followed the recipe for Weizensauerteigbrot nach Chad Robertson to the letter (but forgot to slash the loaf before baking) and it all happened as it was described: once the bread had gone into the oven, it went flat. But after a little while it puffed up and got a really nice shape. I forgot to turn the oven down after I put the bread in but I’m not sure whether that had an impact and if it did, what it may have been. Unfortunately mine turned out a bit moist-looking and rubbery. I posted a comment and the answer I got was that my sourdough probably needs to ripen at a higher temperature so I’ll give this a go next time.