Sourdough French bread

Mmmm! Ever since starting the wonderful Italian culture I bought several months ago, I cannot get enough sourdough!  I adore this culture because it’s not really “sour”… not like San Fransisco sourdough, which I’m not overly fond of.  It make the most killer sourdough waffles ever, and totally kickass bread too!  Why use sourdough if you don’t want the sour taste?  Well for one thing, you don’t have to buy anymore yeast!

I nearly always let it simply rise on a bread board on the counter, and bake it in a clay dutch oven, but today I decided to let it rise in a proofing basket, (you can buy them here if you don’t own one or two) and bake it in my La Cloche. 

My La Cloche is old and well used, but I just recently found those oblong proofing baskets.  I’ve had a round one forever, but the minute I saw the oblong one I had to have it!  The La Cloche needs to be very hot when you put your bread dough into it, or it will stick.  I’m a klutz, and while I can flip a boule over without too much trouble, a skinny tube of raw dough is beyond me once it has risen, I mangle it.  The proofing basket was just the ticket!

I also purchased a French culture, but haven’t activated it yet.  I really need to do that!

Sourdough finds!

I bought a few new bread cookbooks over the holiday… bread is my passion when it comes to baking.  I don’t do much in the way of cookies, cakes, pies… the occasional coffee cake perhaps.  I’ve dabbled in sourdoughs, but nothing extensive.

My interest was re-ignited when first I found these wonderful stoneware crocks over at Bennington Potters.  I ordered the set of each size, and was tickled pink to find that the large one is the perfect size for my no knead bread dough I always have going… Jim Lahey’s fabulous 3 cup recipe, and the smaller one is exactly right for a batch of sourdough starter!  It’s just a bit bigger than a one quart mason jar, and looks so much nicer.

Then in one of the new books, I found a link for a couple of commercial starters that sounded heavenly!  I ordered the Italian and the French starters, and can’t wait to try them out!

I am going to bake a coffee cake today… one of my Facebook friends posted a link to a recipe that sounded really terrific… and looked even better!