Sourdough, cake yeast, and crackers
I rose my sourdough overnight last night, shaped it this morning, and baked it around noon. By the time I got my camera out, one loaf had been devoured and the second was reduced to this:
One thing to note: I forgot it and left it in the oven an extra 10 minutes or so. Every time I do this I am pleased with the result. Dark bread is well-baked bread!
I also tried the Lavash crackers from the BBA:
Eh... I didn't roll it thin enough, so it was more like a flat bread than a cracker. I also found the dough to be sweeter than what I'd expected. Perhaps this is the nature of lavash, I don't know. Next time I'll roll them out thinner and leave out the honey.
I also baked a buttermilk sandwich bread with some cake yeast I was given by a friend (Catlikethief). I'd never tried the stuff before. It smelled foul when I took it out of the fridge, but it definitely did the trick. I'll be interested to taste the bread in the morning to see if the flavor is at all different.
Comments
Floyd - I am definately in agreement with longer-baked breads. I love that dark European look and I agree it tastes better both crust and crumb. I can see from the cracks on that lovely crust that it was talking to you! I am such a sucker for that sound.
So interesting to see your lavosh. My husband and I were just talking about making some which I've never done before. We used to frequent a restaurant that served incredible lavosh - oh, gosh, I can taste it now. The dough was never sweet at all and my memory eating at another favorite restaurant was that it isn't sweet. Our favorite was a Thai peanut sauce with chicken that was out of this world. I must go back and order it to see if I can replicate it.
About the fresh yeast, I bought some for the first time around the holidays and I just loved using it. I felt it made the dough very bubbly and I loved the flavor of the bread. I noticed the fresh yeast smelled odd at first too but I really loved the way it worked. I liked using it so much I made a mental note to try it several times a year.
Zolablue, I knew someone also loved the sound of the singing crust, and it was you. I have made the Almost No Knead bread twice now and both times stood to listen to the music. On Saturday I took the loaf to my grandaughters who were busy beading and made them listen. They were polite but not as thrilled as I was! And yes, the really dark crust tastes so good. I have never seen fresh yeast here on the island - may have to check out the bigger stores in Seattle sometime, A.
Floyd
I too have been thinking of making Lavash. My mum used to buy it and break it up and we'd eat it like potato chips. for a snack. A much healthier version :)
Hubby and I bought a selection of cheeses on the weekend and I said not to buy crackers as I would make some Lavah to eat it with. So now I really must do so and remember to roll it out very very thin. :)
Lavash isnt meant to be sweet. Its already been discussed a few times about Reighearts love of sweeter breads, so perhaps that is it. I will omit the sweetner from it when I make it........cheese on sweet-ish crfackers just doesnt seem very appealing!
TGB
I dig your bread's pose. Very assertive looking. I've made the lavash from Reinhart's WGB several times with dashing results. I'm never really able to roll the dough out quite thin enough though and the closer I get the more uneven it tends to be. I've been debating on trying to use my hand cranked pasta roller to roll the dough, but I'm afraid so I haven't yet. The recipes for lavash in BBA and WGB are pretty similar, there is less honey in the whole grain version. I have had the desire to make the BBA version, but those wheat ones are just so good. Just a tip: I've found that when making crackers if I take them out of the oven before they look just a little over done, they never really crisp up enough. If I leave them in too long, they taste burnt. Its a pretty small window between crispy doneness and burnt. Be careful.
Lovely loaf--I love that dark carmelized crust!
Interesting that you say the fresh yeast smells foul. I don't normally get a good whiff of the SAF Instant Yeast that I normally use, but I did the other day. I didn't like it at all! Kind of surprised me, as I've always loved the smell of yeasty bread. Maybe the yeasty smell I associate with bread is yeast that's well-fed - not in suspended animation!