The Forking of Fran

We’re not talking urban dictionary here, people.

fork (fôrk)

verb

gerund or present participle: forking

1. (especially of a road or other route) divide into two parts.

   “the place where the road forks”

   synonyms:

   split, branch (off), divide, subdivide, separate, part, diverge, go in different directions, bifurcate.

Honestly.

So after having spent a little time getting Fran “spa”-ed up, she appeared to be in good spirits and quite bubbly — good thing I use cloth as a lid on my jar!  It seemed like the time to share, so I did!

I also decided to try again with the sourdough bread-baking, though this time I figured I’d follow in Alex’s footsteps: as the originator of Fran, I figured he probably knows what he’s doing!  The recipe he’d used is below.  Unsurprisingly, even though I was trying, I didn’t end up following his recipe (this time due to not reading properly).  Ah well.  My modifications are noted.

Oatmeal Sourdough (makes 2 loaves)

700 g white bread flour (Straight up AP for me)
300 g semolina (I used whole wheat flour)
100 g buttermilk powder (I missed the “powder” and used yoghourt)
2 tbps butter, melted and cooled
1 cup rolled oats
20g salt
700 g water (+50g added after autolyse)
200 g starter

Steps:

1. Combine 700g water with 100g buttermilk (POWDER!) in a large bowl
2. Add 200g starter, oats, butter.
3. Mix, ensuring butter is well-distributed
4. Add flour(s), mix well.
5. Wait 45 minutes-1.5 hours for autolyse
6. Add 50 g of water, and 20 g of salt.
7. Mix/knead to press salt through dough.
   (At this point, I put a cover on it and stuck it in the fridge overnight.)
8. Knead in bowl (or perform turns) every 45 minutes or so, for about 3 hours.
   (Mine was more like every 2 hours, over 5 hours but it’s cold in our house… and the dough went back in the fridge after to overnight.)
9. Transfer to counter, separate into 2 loaves.
10. Allow loaves to bench rest for 25 minutes.
11. Shape loaves into boules (or other shapes) and move to proofing form.
12. Allow loaves to rise for 4-6 hours. Rising is done if they have doubled in size, or if you press into the dough with a finger, and it very slowly returns to original shape.
    (Should have put something damp on top as they developed a bit of a skin during all this proofing.)
13. Preheat baking stone/cast iron pot at 475F.
14. Place bread in/on baking device (cover with lid if possible.) Slash bread surface in a decorative manner.
15. Reduce temperature down to 425F. If using stone, may want to add a extra water/ice to the chamber… but be careful because water contact on your stone will probably cause it to crack.
16. Bake for 30 minutes at 425F.
17. Remove lid, or water supply… reduce heat to 375F.
18. Bake for 30 minutes at 375F.

It seems I need to work on the depth of my short slashes; the one long one worked out very  nicely though!  After about 40 minutes on the rack, I offered The Boy* a slice and he seemed quite impressed with both the texture and the flavour.  W00t!  I will count that a point in favour of of the home(-made) team!

* Who holds the title of Most Discriminating Bread Eater in our household.