More sourdough

I've made another loaf of sourdough bread.  I wanted to make two and freeze one but there was not enough sourdough starter for two so just one loaf got made.

The recipe I used (link on previous blogpost) is easy and very tolerant.  It also cooks in 30 minutes at 350'F (gas 4).  The author makes a point of stating that you turn on the oven and put the bread straight in and count the 30 minutes from that point.  Usually I bake the bread at a higher temperature and have to preheat the oven.  So this bread uses less gas -something I am rather keen on at the moment.  I need to build up the starter so I can make those two loaves at once. 

I part baked a couple of potatoes in the microwave and finished them in the oven while the bread cooked and also made a farmhouse omelette at the same time so good use was made of that gas : )

The thing about this particular loaf is that I prepared the starter on Saturday and tried to bake it on Sunday. I got up a few minutes early and kneaded the bread and set it to rise before I went to church for 9.00am.  The dough had not doubled in size until teatime (sourdough is very slow) so I knocked it back, kneaded it a bit more and put it in a loaf tin to double in size again.  By the time I wanted to go to bed, it still had not doubled again so I left it until the morning - our house is really cold so the dough was not rising very quickly.  By morning, the dough had overflowed the tin so I took it out, knocked it back again and put it back in the tin to rise yet again. I was wondering what the bread would be like after rising three times but it was probably the best loaf I've ever made.  I said that sourdough was tolerant and it most definitely is : )