Monday, January 27, 2025

Bread Is the Staff of Life

I spent the entire weekend with my good friend Doughlores. Together, we made a lovely batch of bagels, English muffins, jumbo blueberry muffins, and two loaves of bread.

To say that I had a lot of sourdough discard would be a vast understatement, so it was time to use it up and get it out of my fridge. I'd never baked with discard before, so I was simultaneously intrigued and intimidated.

I found the recipes I used on Pinterest and set out on my baking journey at 8:00 Saturday morning, starting with the dough for the bagels.








While the bagels were in the oven, I worked on the English muffins.



And, while the bagels and English muffins cooled, I whipped up the blueberry muffins.



Meanwhile, I was doing stretch and pulls on the sourdough loaves and getting them ready for the fridge, where they would bulk ferment, overnight.


Believe it or not, these were my very first sourdough loaves, despite maintaining two sourdough starters since last year.


The process was time-consuming, but it was also oddly relaxing. I didn't have high hopes for the loaves, being that they were my first, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out.

The verdict on the discard recipes was mixed. Hugh and I both like the bagels, and I will make them again. Hugh isn't a fan of English muffins in general, so I was on my own when it came to judging those; they were pretty good. I made a breakfast sandwich with one on Sunday, and it was just as good as one that I would have made with store-bought muffins.


The blueberry muffins got mixed reviews. They tasted a little too sour, and the crumb was way too moist, but the raw sugar topping was delicious. I think I would make them again, but I would use fresh berries rather than frozen ones and regular blueberries instead of wild blueberries; they were just too sour. Also, the frozen berries added too much moisture to the batter.

They'll still get eaten, though.

All in all, it was a very successful weekend of baking, and I am actually looking forward to making a couple more loaves this coming weekend. I'm thinking about trying a cheddar loaf and a cinnamon and raisin loaf. It will be my first time baking with inclusions, but I think I am up to the challenge.


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