If a stranger walked into my house tomorrow, I'm pretty sure they could successfully guess the gender of my child. This is the line up of trucks that lucky little Ollie got for his Birthday last weekend. I think we may need to get him a sand pit so he can use all his excavation equipment.
He also received a set of plastic golf clubs that he is obsessed with. He carries a club around with him everywhere he goes. Will often puts in the living room so I would say someone is trying to imitate Daddy.
He didn't want to leave Mummy out though. One day he created a new sport where you hit a cake tin around the kitchen with a gold club. I'm not sure I like this one. Have you ever heard the sound of a cake tin being shoved along tiles? Not pleasant.
I've had so many more requests for sourdough starter I thought I'd better get baking and earlier in the week I tried my hand at Celia's overnight loaf trick.
About lunch time I mixed up got out some sourdough starter and fed it. Then I did the same thing with a little extra flour and water at about 4pm.
While dinner was in the oven, I mixed up the dough then after dinner gave it a quick knead (super quick, I'm talking 1 minute), covered it and headed to bed. When I got up at 6am it was well-risen and ready to shape.
I can't believe I've never tried this technique before. The timings work so much better for me and it means there is fresh bread ready by morning tea time.
I also tried out a new shaping (you can find it on Celia's instagram feed) and baking technique where you cook the dough in a pot. Apparently, this traps in the steam which slows the crust formation and lets the bread rise more resulting in a fluffier loaf.
I don't think I'll ever bake it any other way now after it turned out one of the best-looking loaves I've made.
It was also incredibly delicious - light and fluffy with a thin, tender but still crunchy crust. Of course the first slice had to be eaten spread with butter.
In honour of the best ever sourdough loaf, I cooked myself a proper lunch. I wish I had the motivation to make this for lunch every day. It was seriously good.
What about you? Have you tried anything new this week? How do you like to enjoy the first slice of bread?
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