So, here’s what I got for playing fast & loose with Mr. Keller’s instructions:
Big old funny-shaped loaf
A large, oddly shaped loaf – because I didn’t rise it in a linen-lined bowl nor bake it on a stone in an oven with steam-generating chain and rocks. And I probably didn’t dock it – make the cuts – correctly either. I shaped the loaf, made the cuts, and put it in a parchment lined cast iron skillet. To bake, I put a sheet pan in the oven to get hot while the oven heated to the required 460°. Then I spritzed the loaf with water, lowered it onto the sheet pan parchment and all, and stuck it in the oven. I spritzed the whole oven once more after about 5 minutes. So the loaf kinda sprawled out.
Damp in the middle
I only baked it for about 20 minutes instead of the suggested 30, because the top, that stuck up closer to the oven heating elements, was browning so much faster than the floppy sides – so my loaf is a bit damp in the middle.
Individual slices
I think the individual slices will be OK, and it should make very good toast, because of the damp.
My other violations of Keller’s rules included:
- You were supposed to mix the dough in the stand mixer for 20 minutes; I did 5 – and I think my dough was a little less wet and slack than it was supposed to be because my levain is not so liquid (more on that in a sec)
- You were supposed to let the dough ferment for 3 hours, pausing to stretch and fold it every hour, or three times – I did two hours with one stretch and fold
- I only let it rise for about one hour after shaping, instead of two
Keller also said you should see streaks in the sourdough starter (levain), as it rise up and falls back, and that was a sure sign it was ready to use in bread; I never saw those, just plenty of nice spongey bubbles.
Sourdough starter
In fact, I have so much starter now that I followed Keller’s instructions for reviving it that it filled up the quart jar that I store it in too much, so I removed a cup to make sour dough waffles for Sunday brunch.
In other Saturday baking experiments, I tried out the Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake from Vintage Cakes. Very tasty. I have been reading the recipes in this book, and like their tone, written by a Portland, OR bake shop proprietor, but I have a quibble with her, too. For this recipe, she gives quite careful instructions for glazing the cake, hot out of the oven, and not jiggling it, so you don’t get waves in the frosting, all perfectly accurate. But she doesn’t mention that if you glaze the cake hot out of the oven in the correct size pan sheet pan, the glaze is going to go over the edges of the pan. In the picture in the book, the cake has been un-molded onto a sheet of parchment, so that there are attractive, finger-licking frosting dribbles pooled up alongside.
Texas Sheet Cake
