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desperanceBaking a sourdough loaf really isn't as hard as people think (especially my method, which barely calls for any kneading at any point; my shoulders love me as much as my idleness does), but there is one tremendously significant judgement call. There's a sweet spot, the moment that you decide the dough's ready for the oven - which isn't when it's fully risen, because then it's gone too far and you're going to lose a lot of that. While the yeast/sugar interface still has some zing to it, some energy in potential, to give it the oven spring that opens it out along the cuts you make in the crust: that's when you want to slide it in.
That's not the judgement call, though. The judgement call comes an hour earlier, when you need to fire up the oven. "It's not ready now, but in an hour's time it will be" - when all the dough's development is dependent on ambient temperature and moisture and when you fed the starter and and and, and it's different every time. Baking sourdough is like playing jazz, you're always improvising.
*goes to turn on oven*
And in other time-related news? The BBC Genome Project will tell you what was on radio & TV the day you were born. Should you be interested in such things.
That's not the judgement call, though. The judgement call comes an hour earlier, when you need to fire up the oven. "It's not ready now, but in an hour's time it will be" - when all the dough's development is dependent on ambient temperature and moisture and when you fed the starter and and and, and it's different every time. Baking sourdough is like playing jazz, you're always improvising.
*goes to turn on oven*
And in other time-related news? The BBC Genome Project will tell you what was on radio & TV the day you were born. Should you be interested in such things.