Sourdough has an interesting story, but it's not really one of my favorites. I'll still take one of the Italian breads any day of the week...holes and all.
Same here. I'm not a big sourdough fan at all. I'm going to make some soft sandwich bread tomorrow, and get some pizza dough put in the fridge.
I freeze mine. When I make two big loaves of Italian bread, I cut them in half and slice one of the halves. I put the slices into a Ziploc bag and freeze it to draw upon for meals, and freeze/vacuum seal the other 3 halves. When I've consumed the slices, I defrost one of the halves, then slice it and put it into a Ziploc bag and refreeze it to draw upon for meals. I'm thinking that leaving sections of the bread unsliced as long as possible maintains a degree of freshness. I've made brioche specifically for French toast, and pre-slice it and freeze it to draw upon for breakfasts. The stuff thaws pretty quickly at room temp, or I put it in the Breville on Reheat for 2 minutes at 250°
When you "draw upon" your various frozen breads, what types of paint/markers do you use? How did you come to choose frozen foods as the canvas for your drawings? Also, do you only use your artistic drawing talents during meals? I would think that might make for an odd place setting, for you, and others at the table might be offended.
You don't have to explain to us southerners, we have our own type of language. And do adjust to all others.
I tried an experiment today. The soft bread loaves I made last week in the Breville were actually very tasty. (Recipe using evaporated milk.) I was disappointed in the appearance of the loaves because the tops got darker than I like, but I attributed that to the proximity of the oven heating element (countertop oven). So today I dragged out my trusty bread machine to try the recipe, and I halved it to make a single loaf. The recipe instructions for the bread began with activating the yeast in warm water with some sugar, so I did that. Then I read in my bread machine manual that the yeast should never be activated before putting into the machine.... huh?? Anyway, I like living on the edge so I went ahead with the recipe; I have a bon-vivant attitude when it comes to wasting flour. I just dumped ingredients in there with wild abandon and pressed "Start." Three hours later we had a gorgeous, tasty loaf of soft bread. I had a piece with my dinner and then later I toasted a slice and slathered blackberry jam on it to go with my coffee. Excellent toast if I do say so. So now I have a new favorite bread machine bread; it is softer and keeps better than the French bread we like. For some reason the artisan type loaves get hard quickly, I suppose because they are "crustier" to begin with.
I'm struggling to find burger bun molds to make ciabatta buns. I've mentioned elsewhere that the dough is kinda loose and spreads out when it rises and bakes. I've been on Amazon looking at burger bun rings: The problem is that the ones that are tall enough (1.6") so the buns don't ooze out over the top are also a large diameter (4.5"). That's gonna be a pretty big bun. A regular bun is just under 4" in diameter and is nearly 2" tall in the center. I've found some cake ring molds that are 3.15" x 1.6" and 4.13" x 1.6" that might work. I probably should just find a ciabatta recipe that isn't so runny. I've read where others have had this issue, but the problem I've encountered is that when I add enough flour to stiffen up the dough, it kills the flavor. Maybe I'll find a You Tube tutorial and compare it to my recipe to see where the problem lies. A few years ago I found Part 2 of some ancient cooking show where the guy let the entire batch of ciabatta rise in a rectangular baking dish. Then he dumped the whole thing out, used a pastry cutter to divide it into buns, and threw immediately them in the oven. Sadly, I could never find Part 1 that had his recipe.
Sourdough people tend to be obsessed with it. I imagine them praying to their sourdough starter before going to bed each night. It seems too much like a cult, so I'll stick with regular homemade bread.
Pizza crust has a similar cult. I've been on pizza making forums, and the obsession with the perfect crust and the perfect number & size of air pockets, etc is over-the-top. There are some pointers to pick up while observing obsession, but there's a point where you gotta break away and settle for "good enough." I guess you could make a "bad pizza crust" or a "bad bread," but homemade is almost always gonna be way better than anything store-bought.
I have been thinking of having a go at making bagels. But not just plain ones. Will need to think some more. Especially with inflation. I saw at the Festival grocery store ONE bagel in the bakery was $1.39. I usually get National bagels but they are $3+ for 6 now.