Unmitigated disaster. Well, maybe that's a bit melodramatic -- but my Sunday breadmaking did not really get off of the ground. I set my dough out for its first rise, using the 1 starter : 1 water : 2 flour ratio from the Ruhlman blog (+15-20 minutes of kneading) ... and the dough never really rose.
On the first rise the dough jumped a modest 25-50% in size (after 12-15 hrs), but when I tried to handle it for punching down in preparation of the second rise (proofing) it was still fairly dense and very very sticky. After setting it out for proofing it did not rise again. It just dried up. And eventually became pocked with finger holes from our poking it to check if it was rising (which it wasn't). So, on Monday I was forced to abandon ship on this attempt. Given the lack of a strong rise, I suspect the problem was with my starter (not active enough).
(New home for my sourdough)
For attempt #2, I'll be taking a stab at a slightly less ambitious but exciting sounding bread, Pain a l'Ancienne (French bread) which uses instant yeast and will substantially shorten timelines and eliminate the need for a pre-ferment for now. I find I'm having trouble ensuring that I'm available for the feeding times, and refrigeration seemed to throw everything off.
I must admit that one of my first thoughts following the failure of my bread was that this is a disaster - it will be really disappointing for the followers of my blog (all three of them at the moment...) who were so looking forward to bread over the weekend. But, ironically given my passover entry, my bread did not leaven - and I reminded myself that my quest for bread is as much about the journey as the final result. Although, it would be nice to have some edible milestones during the journey, but all in time I suppose.
Stay tuned -- there will be bread on this blog soon. My bread titanic has only hardened my resolve. I sense greater success with French bread given the lower cultural distance.
Back in my breadmaking days, I occasionally took solace in a claim from one of the "Whole Foods" cookbooks that dominated the 70s (perhaps Laurel's Kitchen) -- The author argued that there could be no failures, bread-wise, as one only had to "slice it very thin and call it pumpernickel"!
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