SOUR DOUGH PETE

Tracking down a sour dough starter which would be more versatile than the late “Herman” Proved to be relatively easy and on Sunday Sour Dough Pete was born. Yesterday I took some of the starter and made what is called “the sponge” and leaving the rest of Pete in the refrigerator left it in a warm place over night as instructed.
Today's dinner was to be roasted pork belly with roasted vegetables,jacket wedges and dips and since this meal is usually eaten with trenchers of bread I decided to experiment with the sour dough sponge.

Following the recipe I did all the blending , mixing and kneading and left the dough to rise............. for ages..........then added some soda, and kneaded again this time dividing the mixture in to two bread pans and leaving to rise again....................for ages.



Although our meal is quite a simple one to cook it requires the whole oven as there are three large trays of vegetables and meat in the oven for the last hour or so.
Ol' Pete had sure taken his time about rising and the meat had been in the oven for an houir before he was ready to go in and since he needed an hoiur this was going to deklay dinner...........Bum!

I pottered around the kitchen fiddling about with this and that, I fed the cat, wrote up some new recipes and watched Pete through the glass door of the oven with more that the usual concern. Since the recipe had stated fifty to sixty minutes cooking time I was surprised when after only forty minutes the bread was done, the crust was golden brown and the loaves had a hollow sound when tapped on the base; I decided to trust my judgement and set the loaves to cool.

New bread always makes the kitchen smell wonderful and as I make bread several times a week we have become used to the lovely smell, this did not however prepare any of us for the detectable aroma of the sour dough loaves as they cooked and afterwards as they cooled on the kitchen table covered with a clean tea cloth. Each of us began to look forward to our evening meal even more that is usual for this favourite dish as the bread was to accompany it.

Dinner came to the table only a little late and the bread was cut ceremoniously by my son, each of us took a piece, spread it with the roasted garlic and took a bite..............wow!
Wonderful as our usual new bread is this was something different, it had a freshness about the flavour which was almost magical, in short we were hooked.

Now I do not pretend that I shall make this bread three times a week, as I do our usual sort as it is rather time consuming but I shall certainly be keeping a sour dough starter in the fridge and I shall defiantly be making this delicious bread at least on the weeks when my son is at home and for special occasions.

I hope to try the sour dough muffins soon and the pancakes and waffles, if they are half as good as the bread we are in for a treat.

Well done University of Alaska and well done Sour dough Pete.