I started the “Natti’s Cooking” blog a while ago to share my enthusiasm for good food and perhaps to brag just a little about Natti’s knack for the culinary arts. I share it fairly regularly with my friends on Facebook, and I get comments from time to time indicating that some of them actually check out the blog and appreciate it.
I shared the blog with Mike Hershfelt, a new intern at work, who said that his girlfriend also had a food blog,
See it HERE. I checked out her blog and was instantly intrigued by her sourdough bread, partially because Natti had just discovered “San Luis Cracked Wheat Sourdough” bread and partially because the picture in Katie’s blog looked wonderful. I mentioned this to Mike and he offered up a cup of Katie’s sourdough starter to get me going. As of right now, my first ever batch of sourdough bread is in its 14th hour of rising/fermenting and I am getting excited.
I followed Katie’s recipe fairly closely, and initially ended up with a small dough ball which I set aside for the night. In the morning when I rushed into the kitchen to check it out, it had grown. It was now four or five times as big as the previous night and looked more like a really thick batch of my white milk gravy than a dough ball. I started to worry a bit.
After the requisite 16 hours of fermentation, I turned it out onto my floured cutting board and my worries started to ebb. It is dough after all, and it is full of bubbles and it smells good. I spread it out and folded it as recommended and then formed it into a ball to start its final resting period before I introduce it to the oven.
As I wait, I’m thinking “This has been pretty easy, so far.” And as I look over the directions, it appears that the hard part is already done. When one hour had passed, I set the oven to 400◦ F and put Natti’s cherished Le Creuset Dutch oven inside to heat up. After another half hour I dumped the dough ball into the dutch oven, put on the cover and slid it into the oven. Another half hour and the lid was removed from the dutch oven and I got my first peek at the bread.
Now all I have to do is wait 15 more minutes for the final browning and for the crust to firm up.
It's beautiful!!! Let it cool on the rack for a bit then cut into it, spread a little butter and….. It’s not half bad!! In fact, it's pretty darned good!!
I already have another loaf fermenting, and a couple of ideas which I'm pretty sure will improve an already pretty darned good bread.... we'll see tomorrow afternoon.
