Bouquet de garlic

Bouquet de garlic

Monday sourdough

…the first made with my new starter culture, now ~3 weeks old.

Monday sourdough

Lacking the equipment to make a proper scientific measurement of the ingredients, I just combined flour, water and salt in roughly the right proportions. 8 hour preferment with 1/3 of the flour, dough mixed and proved for 4 hours, shaped, and retarded in the fridge overnight.

The crumb is denser than one might prefer, probably due to the starter still being somewhat young and underpowered. It could have risen for another hour or two.

But the flavour is promising, and the crust is good: caramelised, brittle, shattering.

Crumb.

Oxford is slowly filling up with returning students; having finished my degree, I’ll be leaving at the end of the week.

Oxford from St. Mary's Tower

The Eternal Bread

Carefully positioned on a warm, sunny corner of my desk, there is a squat glass tumbler half-filled with a thin paste of whole wheat flour and water. It’s been there since Sunday; lifeless and inert at first, but lately beginning to bubble and foam towards the rim of the glass, quietly inflating its transparent ziploc bag.