My Grandmother's Recipe Box

When I first began my sourdough starter in March, I did not know quarantine sourdoughing was a thing. But I found myself home more like a lot of others and I had been wanting to try doing it and now I was home more to give it a try. Luckily, I had stocked up on flour as it got a little difficult to always count on being able to get it a few weeks in when everyone started stockpiling everything. I was not exempt from  the food hoarding phenomena and while I did not go completely crazy, I did keep on hand many more things that I normally would. It certainly was disconcerting to find yourself at a grocery store with shelves completely cleared out of many items and rationing in place. It makes you realize just how spoiled you are being able to get what you want on a whim.     So I started the process and now have been keeping it going for several months.  While sometimes it does seem like a chore to feed it, I mostly find it very interesting to see it grow and use i...

The simple   Paul Hollywood Ciabatta Recipe .  How simple is it?  The ingredients are few and the technique seems simple but there is also a bit of practice makes perfect needed here. So far I have made two tries at it.   The flavor was good in both but I made a crucial error on the 1st try so it was a bit dense.  I should have paid attention tot the kind of yeast - Instant Yeast means Fast Acting Yeast and I just breezed right past that distinction the 1st time.   I have some pics of both tries below. They both mixed up very well and formed a lovely dough ball. Gluten is really amazing to watch form. Try 1   Try 2 Try 2 The problem was in the rise - see difference in size of dough before and after proofing               Try 1 Before Try 1 After               Try 2 Before Try 2 After The shaping of the dough is a little ...