Well, I am pleased to report that the loaf baked yesterday is, perhaps, not the most elegant item, but damn! it’s yummy!
I modified some things and ended up baking the loaf in a cake tin with a Pyrex pie plate as a lid. I’ll probably need to get a lidded casserole (mine went to the Op Shop ages ago!), but yesterday’s Heath Robinson arrangement worked.
Right! I suppose you want pitchers?
This was the first, not very successful attempt.The recipe calls it, at this stage, “shaggy dough” and it did, indeed smell a bit like a wet sheep!
But I persevered…
Here you see me shaping the dough into something that looks loaf-like.
No photos of the baked result! Perhaps I was a little heavy-handed in my shaping? I don’t know.
But I found another recipe and am quite pleased with this effort. Mind you, removing my modified lid was tricky!
The recent showers have had an almost magical effect on withering, dry gardens. The night-blooming jasmine, Cestrum nocturnum, will need some heavy pruning!
Now, I have an early appointment in town, which means I’ll be driving in school traffic. And The Man needs to use this computer as his has died. These wretched toys have a damnably short shelf-life, don’t they!
Moreidlethoughts Weblog 
Congratulations on getting your bread made. I’ll bet it tasted good. Quite a rigmarole though, I don’t think I’d have the patience, much as I love sour dough.
The garden has gone crazy with weeds as we are enjoying a fairly wet spring. I think I’ll need to find that gardener boy we dream of, otherwise the garden will take over the property. My secret garden becomes more secret by the day, almost invisible now with shrubs beginning to tower over me. I’m sure there are triffids breeding in there. Certainly snakes breeding in the undergrowth… Bring on the gardener boy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You do know the Internet Maxim? “Show pictures or it didn’t happen”
I think my bread needs a little tweaking, but I’m happy enough so far.
LikeLike
I am thrilled that your bread worked. And look forward to seeing/hearing more about further developments. Doesn’t baking bread make the house smell divine?
Rain is a garden saviour isn’t it? We had some blissful early spring rain, but it is disappearing now and the garden is starting to mourn.
LikeLike
We’re up in the 30s now and the wind has sprung up.
Yes, a baking smell is lovely.
LikeLike
I am under pressure to bake bread again. Leo likes a bread which resembles a Belgian half and half but it needs a trip to the capital to buy it for the freezer and as we don’t go as often as BB – before bug – the bread supply gets a little precarious.
I’m not risking sourdough – not yet – and will start off with pistolei which I know I can make to get back in the habit. But when I make a loaf I will use a tip like your cake tin and pyrex plate…I remember I used to plonk the loaf on a red hot baking tin and whop a cake tin over it to encourage it to rise.
Once it works with white flour then I will try the half and half……
That lot should occupy me for the next few weeks…
I must look for that jasmine
LikeLiked by 1 person
once you have made a loaf or several I think you get your hand in,as they say.
And if the cestrum is growing anywhere you’ll have no trouble striking a twig.Or a ruddy great branch.
LikeLike
Now, if only you could find a recipe that combines a bread recipe with night-flowering jasmine, and you could solve a couple of problems at the same time… Jx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only provided it was the flower scent,NOT the foetid leaf scent!
LikeLike
So sorry I am late, Dinah – I had a bit of a peculiar day yesterday!
I so wish I could eat your bread, is it soft or crusty? If it is soft I may stand a chance with it.
And if I could send you a laptop, I would!
Sx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Um…The outer is crusty. The bread part is quite dense (I expected hole-y bread, to be honest. Not to be confused with the transcendental wafers used in church!) but not chewy.
Sadly, it must be kept in the fridge, which is a terrible way to treat bread, but in this climate it would go mouldy within hours!
So…your poor old toofies would probably need the crusts removed.Never mind! I could make you soup and serve the bread as croutons! Come for next Hallowe’en and I’ll make my famous soup.
https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/2006/11/03/post-halloween-post/
Oh bugger! I forget how to do a link from here!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wasn’t my teeth in the end. It’s my jaw. No more chewing. Ack. Soup sounds good though!!
Sx
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Liquid bread” is the answer !
LikeLiked by 2 people
Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside …
LikeLiked by 1 person
And it toasts beautifully!
LikeLike
Oh, thank the gods! You ate it, rather than it eating you!
P.S. I love your “bias cut” tiles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I was a little concerned with the first attempt that the Beast might consume me. But this one was very well-behaved.
About those tiles…when we first looked at this house they were like a slap in the face. I wondered, seriously, if we might have to remove them! But I got used to them.I did , for a while, have to remind myself that it was a bit like a kitchen I knew in France.
LikeLike
I know I’m months late to this but I have to comment. I, also, have been making sourdough, probably since April, and I’ve given up with the whole Dutch Oven thing. I now just bake it in a loaf tin, with a tray of boiling water beside it for the first half hour. It took a while, but I now get a good rise and lots of holes every time. I don’t even bother to look at the recipe these days and I leave it to bulk rise in the fridge so I don’t have to worry about it over-proving. Now I’ve got the hang of it I reckon it’s easier than using a bread maker. And you’re right, it makes fantastic toast! X
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay! Yes, modifying recipes to suit your equipment, or whatever, usually doesn’t go very wrong.
I will make up a new starter soon and get back to it.But when the monsoon storms began I really didn’t want a power cut with a boggy half-baked loaf in the oven!
LikeLiked by 1 person