Sourdough Baking Today

For most of the sourdough bread that I make, I stir it up the night before, do several stretch and folds before bedtime, leave it out overnight, do another stretch and fold in the morning, let it rise for a few hours, then bake it.

Yesterday afternoon I stirred up two different recipes of sourdough. The one on the right is the plain sourdough that I make at least three times most weeks.

The one on the left is an “enriched” sourdough. It has milk instead of water. It called for 1 whole egg and one egg yolk but I used one duck egg. Thanks to a friend here, I now have duck eggs! The recipe also calls for butter and honey . . sounds pretty good, huh?

I’ll be anxious to see how it turns out. It’s a very dense dough. I told Vince the regular sourdough reminds me of Rita – she does exactly what we ask of her; walking her on a leash is a joy, she doesn’t ask for much. The enriched dough reminds me of Oscar. I go right, it wants to go left; walking him on a leash sometimes means we’re both turning flips (or so it seems), it’s heavy and dense and not pliable at all – has a mind of its own. The story of two dogs . . there in my dough bowls! 🙂

I did the last stretch and folds about 8 this morning so I should be able to bake it about 11 but the recipe said the “enriched” dough may take longer to rise. We’ll see. I’ll report back with photos!