We finally got our new oven last week and this was the christening loaf.
Several weeks ago my good friend Gary generously gave me a starter culture that he had prepared according to Silverton's procedure. I've been keeping it in the fridge. Once in a while I take it out, dump some out and replenish it with equal quantities of flour and water. Observing it over the course of a day, I see it plump up in volume within a couple hours. It looks very happy despite my neglect.
Well, the oven was coming and two days before its arrival, I fed the starter in this manner twice over two days maintaining a thick batter-like consistency and using it approximately 12 hours after its last feeding. The dough I made used this starter (300 g), water (300 g), unbleached white flour (425 grams) and a mixture of wheat/rye flour (75 grams) and salt (10 grams). I plopped it all in my bread machine and did a 30 minute knead, a 1.5 hour rise, 1 hour rest and 1 hour final proof (no fridge retarding). Baked in abundantly pre-heated oven (450-deg-F) for about 45 minutes on clay tiles with a steam shot (ca. 60 mL).
Looks ok. Tasted ok. I think I have to do the fridge retarding for the final proof. I just get nervous over doing this. I never have a confident feeling when to cook after warming it from the fridge and get paranoid of over-proofing and having it squash on baking.
(ps I've combed this text looking for its/it's mistakes and believe I got them all; leave a comment if I missed any.)
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