Sunday, January 10, 2010

Rye Redemption

I made a starter this morning for baguettes to have this evening with our Vietnamese meatballs. But then at brunch at Sophabella's (where I resisted the $1 mimosas - Aimes & Malia, aren't you proud of me?), we realized that they supposedly sell some of the best pizza in OKC, and John wanted to take one home for dinner. We agreed on the 'the Hit Man', full of meat, and it smelled delicious in the car, even after three cups of coffee and crab cakes with hollandaise.

When I got home, the starter had overflowed the tupperware, growing nearly 1.5 its starting size in 3 hours. How could I throw that out, especially at my failure with the first sourdough starter? So I improvised, and adjusted a Polish rye recipe to make room for the starter. Again, a little malformed, and it baked in 10 minutes less than the actual recipe. I also think more caraway seeds would be lovely. And it should have split more open, growing wider as opposed to just taller. I think a lower heat would have worked better; 425 seemed far too hot, but since I don't know quite what my adjustments might have done to the recipe, I wasn't sure which way to adjust what.

But oh, it was tasty. I only had a little piece. Okay, two little pieces. Crumbs, really. But I had a salad, too? John says it's the best rye he's ever had; I don't think he's being facetious, either.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha! Congrats on resisting the mimosas --- I don't think I'd have had the strength!

When we come down, I want you to bake bread and take me through the whole process (except no rye, please - it's not my bag, baby!). I desperately WANT to make bread, but admittedly, am a coward.

Love,
A

Erin Stocks said...

Done. Although be ready, it's addictive.