Smoked Gouda and Jalapeño Country Loaf
Now that the weather has finally warmed up, I am amazed at how differently my starter and doughs are behaving. The starter is rising and falling more quickly and bulk fermentation of the dough is taking a couple of hours less time. As of yesterday, the kitchen temperature was 74 F as opposed to the 67 F it was all winter.
I planned on making my grapevine smoked cheddar and jalapeño loaf this week only to discover we had eaten all the grapevine smoked cheddar. Debbie suggested that we use smoked Gouda (store bought) and I thought why not.
I did something a little different with the leaven this time. I didn’t want to mix the dough until mid-afternoon the next day. Instead of using 100 grams each flour and water, I used 50 grams each along with only 4 grams of starter. Then next morning, after 12 hours, I added another 50 grams each. I was trying to make a milder loaf of bread. I then mixed the dough 4 hours after after the second addition to the leaven.
I am going to cut this post short here. I made a poor assumption and bad decision when baking this bread. I am very frustrated with myself. My poor assumption was that the dutch oven was seasoned enough so that even though I was using it cold and going into a cold oven, the bread wouldn’t stick. The bad decision was to not use parchment paper anyway. The end result was the bread stuck severely and I crushed the crust trying to get it loose and I couldn’t get it off the bottom of the pot. When Debbie got home from church she worked on it. She did finally get it off the bottom of pot but some of the bottom crust stayed there. What’s left tastes fine and the loaf looked great in the pot when it came out of the oven. I’m still frustrated with myself a day later. Lesson learned!
I will document this loaf the next time I make it.