Tuscan Bread

The boiled water/flour starter was a real mess as far as I'm concerned. Even after I added the other ingredients the dough remained very sticky. I had to keep stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a cold spatula. After the kneading I had to run cold water over my hands to get the dough into a ball so I could set it to rise. Cold, wet hands work perfectly for handling wet doughs!

This is the dough before it was covered and set aside to rise. I didn't think to take a picture of the risen dough. (I was busy racking cyser and mead.) Our kitchen is around 70F and the dough needed punched down about an hour and a half into its 2 hour rise.

My son tells me I need to learn to shape loaves properly. He works in a commercial kitchen where presentation means something. I don't. I can focus on crust, crumb and flavor. Once I have them where I want them I'll worry about what my bread looks like!

Out of the oven and cooling. I tapped their bottoms. They sounded hollow, but I should have used an instant read thermometer! I think they are a little underdone.

I was a little disappointed with the crumb. As gaseous as the dough had been I'd hoped for big bubbles. Still, the loaves would be great for sandwiches if Peter had suggested a little salt! He did suggest the recipe was a starting point and bakers should work from there. Remembering that, I can't complain too much about the result. Nice crust, crumb is very nice for sandwiches. A little sweet? Maybe toasting it would help?

DW cut several slices and ate them as they were. She allowed a bit of salt would have made them better. I'm thinking a slather of mayo and some fresh cracked pepper, maybe the slightest sprinkle of salt? Some imported Tuscan ham roasted with rosemary? GA! I'm making myself hungry!

Not a bad result my first time through the recipe. I was very surprised with what I got each step of the way from beginning to end. I've never used cooked flour in a recipe before. I'm thinking I might try it alongside the ciabattas I make next week from the poolish and biga I have in the fridge.