Hi friends,
Well, thought I'd share my yesterday's antiquing find.
It felt so good to get out and do something for fun. Really didn't see one thing I couldn't
live without though. I told the gal who runs the shop that I was looking for heavy white ironstone.
She laughed and said, "Well who isn't?!!!"
I only found two things to bring home.
This old book was cheap and while falling apart... it has alot of good
This old book was cheap and while falling apart... it has alot of good
words inside. I think I'll gut it and reinforce the spine and turn it into a junk journal
for the month of February.
The book pages can be kept to practice my flowers on and to
cut cool phrases from it too.
Plus there are two full pages of these gorgeous marbled papers in the front
and back. I love the old marbled covers and pages. These were printed in 1896.
I found one other thing I purchased but it's a gift for a friend- something
she collects and so I can't share it here or she'll know in a heartbeat it's for her
and it's...... a surprise!!!!!!!
Speaking of flea/antique finds... this vintage Marcrest daisy dot bowl I've had for years. I love the earthy color and I got it to use for baking but honestly
it's just a little small for all my cookie recipes and things. BUT... it works absolutely perfect
for the sourdough artisan bread! It's like they were absolutely made for one another
so it brought me great joy to be using it again.
And as you may have guessed today was another bread day.
After baking yesterday, I fed my starter and let it set out on the counter a few hours.
Then I poured it all into this cool jar I was gifted at Christmas and put her in the fridge.
Last evening I took a peek inside and look at all the pretty bubbles!
I think I have a good strong starter going.
After supper last night I mixed up another bread dough to
try it again today.
It came together really well and I put it in my greased marcrest bowl and
covered it to rest on the counter over night.
This is how it looked this morning.
When I took it out and put it in the battenon basket I know I
wasn't generous enough with the flour and the dough was already a little
extra sticky. (another lesson I learned... don't be so afraid to use extra flour)
I left it in the basket for a couple hours
then fired up my oven. Yesterday's mistake was I left the oven on 500 for the
full 40 minutes. Even my parchment paper got brittle and when I lifted the
bread from the dutch oven; the paper tore.
Today I noticed on the packaging of my parchment paper that it says right on it
that it's for up to 480 degrees. (dingding)
Today I got to use this new scoring lame.
They're so dang cute... like a tiny loaf of bread.
Getting my dough out of the battenon basket was tricky today because
I didn't use enough flour.
You can see the place on the dough where it tore some. Oh well...
I slapped some flour on it and while I appreciate beautiful loaves... I also
love the earthy rustic nature of it all. For now my ultimate goal
is to just turn out a delicious piece of bread. Hopefully in time the pretty
will come.
Since the parchment says up to 480 and yesterday I nearly incinerated things...
I decided to do the first covered twenty minutes at 480 instead of 500.
(I didn't hay ponies and goats in between either. lol I stayed inside within earshot of my timer.
When my oven dinged, I took it out and snapped this photo before returning to the oven
without the lid.
Then I turned it down to 450 for the last uncovered twenty minutes.
So this is how the second loaf turned out.
It's definitely on the lighter side of things so I might adjust this recipe
a little more depending what it looks like inside when we cut into it.
But I'm definitely happier how this one turned out.
Things I've learned so far on my sourdough adventure are...
1. don't overthink or stress over starter. Just keep loving it and feeding it flour and water.
2. Use warm spring water or something that's not out of the tap.
3. Let the stand mixer really work the dough.
4. Be generous with flour in the battenon basket and my hands!!!
5. Keep the house warmer when rising.
6. Don't start outside chores when baking because time always gets away from me.
7 Enjoy the process.
-- Funny how writing all that sounds ..so simple. But when trying to figure out
the starter in the beginning and what to do with it all seemed so confusing.
I'm anxious to cut this loaf for supper and taste it.
Yesterday's burnt loaf; I cut the black parts off. The whole bottom was burnt as well.
The rest of it tasted really good though. It definitely has the sourdough twang. Even Myguy liked it and he is very finicky.
I'm going to pick out a new sourdough cookbook today and look forward to finding new things
to use the discard in. The whole wheat sourdough banana bread is really good!
I'm hoping to get our freezer stocked up with things like that.
--Today is national blueberry pancake day. Sourdough discard would be
awesome in that.
I leave you with my crippled, pet rooster.
Does he make you smile?
He's renamed: Tiny Tim.
Every evening I still carry him to the greenhouse. Along the way, I stop
and put him down in a patch of clover for a few bites. He loves to eat green grass and clover.
He also loves
this heater and is kinda smitten with the metal chicken in the
corner that Trent gave me.
They could be twins huh? lol
Yall have a wonderful day!
Until we meet again,
<*)))><
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