The salt rising bread recipe I use starts with sliced potatoes in the starter. It’s a bit tricky. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and I have never found any rhyme or reason as to why one batch will work and one will not. Last week when I made it, the first attempt didn’t bubble and ferment. I dumped everything (a few potatoes, a bit of cornmeal and a little salt and sugar) so it wasn’t a great loss but it takes time and I never am sure if we’re going to have bread or not.
Knowing there are more than one salt rising bread recipe out there, I decided to check out some other recipes. I saw the Classic American Salt Rising Bread recipe at King Arthur and it looked quite a bit easier and more reliable than my recipe so I tried it. One bit of advice, and it’s something I should have picked up on — mix up the starter right before bed, leave it to ferment overnight and then make your bread the next day. I started my starter in the middle of the day, halfway expecting it not to work, and when it did I was up during the middle of the night making bread.
When I stuck the starter aside last night, I could see from the bubbles that it was going to be very active, and it was.
I did mix and knead it with the mixer, according to the directions. I usually prefer to hand knead but the recipe said it took about 7 minutes with the mixer and I knew that would be more hand kneading than my arm was ready to do.
I used the small Pullman pan because it has higher sides. I thought this dough might rise way more than my regular recipe.
You can see how much taller the Pullman pan is than the regular bread pan.
I should have gone with y feelings and made two loaves because it really did rise way more than I expected. I prefer my bread a little shorter. That way, our sandwiches aren’t so big.
Perfect!
The real test was . . toast! Salt rising bread makes the best toast and as I would have expected, the toast was awesome. We had crack chicken, corn on the cob, sauerkraut (which wasn’t quite ready yet but we couldn’t wait any longer!) and toast.
I’m going to stir up another starter tonight and make another loaf tomorrow.
Liz says
Sounds wonderful but a lot of work… Have you ever tried Irish soda bread? I found a recipe on the homesicktexan.com site. Search for the Irish soda bread – it is wonderful and has bacon (Canadian, if you can’t find Irish) and Irish Cheddar. I use Kerry Gold cheddar, which I can find at Aldi.
The bread lasts and is wonderful for breakfast. Hmm… may need to make some very soon.
Nelle Coursey says
There is nothing better than home made bread with butter on it! To me it is better than cake!