Friday, July 16, 2010

It All Started with a Starter

The Loaf

It all started with a starter. My mom (once again) started a sourdough loaf a day or 2 before the 4th this year. She's done it a couple of times before and it has been hit or miss. The starter usually gets a crust on top with a liquid on the bottom and that's been it - just never been quite sure what to do with it. But this year she had an inspiration that came in the form of a stone oven.
On the 3rd we got to enjoy a lovely dinner with some people around the neighborhood that was focused on pizza baked in this oven:
The Oven

While we were there Mark (who runs this blog: The French Broad) told us that the oven would continue to be hot for the next couple of days and we should stop by with a loaf of bread. We promptly set on baking a loaf of sourdough bread in that oven, and we succeeded! Although the oven was a little too hot for bread (note the extremely dark exterior) and the starter didn't create quite the typical sourdough taste, the bread was still delectable, and baking it in an outdoor oven wasn't half bad either :)
Putting it in (the oven)