Experiments II

An update on my 'Experiments' post about my fledgeling crocheted '3D' blanket, and my first foray into sourdough baking.

I've joined together the squares I've crocheted so far, and I think the blanket's looking pretty snazzy! I crocheted them together on the wrong side, which I think is slightly more fun than sewing them together.

Yarn-ends and all!

I've had moderate success with my two batches of sourdough bread - both tasted good and had a good texture, but were quite small. The second batch of dough, which I left to rise for about 24 hours, rose more than the first (which had about 16 hours rising time). So I'm going to stick to longer rising times from now on.

I also wanted to see whether using a recently-fed sourdough starter would make a noticeable improvement to the rising of the dough. My last two batches used starter that had sat in the fridge for a few days since its last 'feeding' with flour and water. This time, I made one 'control' batch of dough, 'Dough A', with starter that was last fed two days previously. I then fed the starter and left it out on the bench. After an hour or so I made the second batch of dough, 'Dough B', using this freshly-fed starter.

I put Dough A in a smaller bowl, as I expected Dough B to rise more (and need more room). Is that what happened? Nope:

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Dough A (left) and Dough B (right)

They've both risen, but Dough A is bigger. Maybe I didn't leave the starter to bubble up for long enough after I fed it, before using it to make Dough B.

After punching down the dough, kneading again, and leaving them alone for a few more hours, they're now almost the same size. I guess certain variables don't matter as much with a long rising time! Good to know. :)