Loafing

I am excited about this new sourdough bread recipe I found. It is like a science experiment! It is brewing right now on the kitchen counter.

Most people like to bake bread in the winter when it is cold but I like to bake it in the summer when it is hot! Actually it is not hot enough at the moment for my purposes. I like steamy hot weather because that is when the bread rises the best.

Above is a picture of me baking bread in the summer.

My new sourdough recipe comes from a cookbook I bought at the library book shop for a buck. The recipe comes from South Africa. You know that recipe that is making the rounds for No-Knead Bread? This is even better. If it works out, that is.

In this recipe there is not only no need to knead, but there is no need for yeast.

You do not need it!

That yeast is out the window!

It is Salt-Rising Bread. What you do is, you take a mixing bowl, and you put in two teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, one and a half cups boiling water and -- I love this -- a half cup plus two tablespoons cold water. You mix all this together and then you take a cup of whole wheat flour or cornmeal, and you sprinkle that over the top.

Then you do like Bill Clinton ...


... and get on with your life. And the starter sits in the bowl for 24 hours, starting.

When the 24 hours are up you mix in about eight cups more whole wheat flour and then you let it rise for an hour, and after that you shape it into two loaves and you let them rise and then you bake them.

So that is the plan. I cannot wait to see if this works. I get such a kick out of baking bread. Even when I was in California with Leonard Pennario I picked up some flour -- both whole wheat and rye -- so I could bake bread because I am spoiled now, I am used to my own. My creativity in this department was wasted on Pennario. He did not eat bread except if he was eating a burger or something. He was a junk food kind of guy. Well, is there any other kind of guy? Men, they do love their junk food.

Wow, I just sneaked a peek and the stuff smells bread-y in there and it is kind of foamy and bubbly. So at noon I will go and dump in the rest of the flour and see what happens.

I will report!