Susy Morris / Flickr
When I walked into the Intro to Sourdough bread - making class byThe Artisan Bread School’sTom Edwards in Louisville , Ky. , each bookman ’s station was sic up with two lawn bowling , a terrace scraper , a towel , an forestage , a kitchen scale , a banneton , a Dutch oven and cabbage ingredients . As a foresightful - clip habitation bread bread maker , thismise en placewas familiar to me . How we used the tools , though , surprise me and has change mybakingfor the in force — and the dry cleaner .
A New Look at Tools
We did no workspace cleaning before we startedbread - qualification . We were in a small , well - observe commercial kitchen , after all , and I thought the outer space must have been adequately cleaned before scholar arrived . When it comes to kneading lettuce on a countertop surface , though , I can be pretty anal - retentive . You see , I exist in a farmhouse with two roomie who , let ’s say , do n’t share my same kitchen - sustainment philosophical system . It makes me want to scrub every Earth’s surface that my food is sound to stir before my food touch it . want to be a undecomposed bookman , I refrained from asking to reclean my work space before we began .
I ’m beaming I did forbear because we did n’t in reality apply the countertop for knead . Instead , nearly the integral pelf - making process took place in a large bowling ball . That ’s the same bowl for mix , knead , proof and fold . We did n’t ditch the pelf onto the countertop until fourth dimension for defining , and by then , I was so activated about what piffling heap we ’d made that I permit go of my surface - cleanliness hangup . influence on the countertop created next - to - no mess compare to the flour that I manage to get everywhere when knead on a countertop .
Going back to the lean of items placed at our workstations , you should notice that a whisk broom , spatula or wooden spoon is not on it . I did n’t realize these thing were missing until it came fourth dimension to mix our sourdough entrant with our water . Edwards just beat his hired man into the bowl and mushed the ingredient together , so the students did the same . pour the starter / water mixture into the large bowling ball of artisan staff of life flour , we did it again . Our hand was our mixer , and that was fun ! Plus , there was no wooden spoonful that had to be soaked and quarrel at the end .
In this class , I find out that bread - fashioning is still bread - making , irrespective of the tool you ’re using . I made note of a few adjustments to the process and secrets to making this new - to - me method go swimmingly .
Grab And Knead
Denna Jones / Flickr
In traditional countertop kneading , you dump the dough from the bowl onto a flour surface and cultivate at your own rolling - folding - flipping - rotating pace . You get flour on the level , and you get dinero stuck to the cabinets ( or at least I do ) . You ferment and work until you ’re sure you ’ve massage enough to have garner a degree in kneading .
Kneading in the bowling ball works a small differently . You do n’t floor a gang of flour in there with your dough , rather you drizzle a diminutive bit of olive fossil oil between the bowl and the edge of the sugar — just enough so you could slide your paw in there — and you wet your fingertips . Reach down in there , all the way to the bottom of the bowl , take hold of the dough , pull it up , and fold it over . Rotate the bowl a quarter turn , and do the same . Keep repeating this process . The quicker you ’re able to get to , grab , pull and fold , the less the loot will stick to your manus .
This process sour for the initial kneading , and if you ’re making a more complicated bread with multiple fold - and - rest steps , it works for your fold , too .
Scrape, Scrape, Scrape
Because you ’re influence through all of the stair in the same bowl , it ’s very important that the bowl remain clear , peculiarly in the mixing phase of kale making . Using formative bench scrapers with rounded edges , we scraped the doughy bits off of the sides of the roll , because you do n’t want those pieces to come off at a late stage and leave a heavy ball of flour in your otherwise - uniform , well - risen kale .
This bench scraper is a friend to your sticky fingers , too , because it ’s much easier to come up off sloshed dough than it is to get out it off with your other , as messy bridge player .
Save Your Sink
Using your bridge player as mixing tools , you ’re depart to have some — sometimes a wad of — wampum residue on you . Rather than wash away it all down the sink and clog the drain pipage , Edwards puts a small bucket in the sump to rinse into . The dinero come off remarkably easily , does n’t make tiny loaves of simoleons in your kitchen - swallow hole waste pipe and can be dumped into your compost or strained from the pee and throw in the codswallop .
Put A Bowl On It
Your favorite bread formula probably calls for letting the dough roost and rise in a warm place with charge plate wrap or a towel over the bowl . This lose weight the moisture lost from the dough . At the Artisan Bread School , we just used another , upside down bowl to cover the sugar bowl . Being witting of waste , I do n’t love how I did n’t intend of this myself . There ’s no plastic wrapping to throw out and no kitchen towel from which to peel off sting - on lucre .
I ’ve been a dwelling baker for a few years and volunteered at a bakery in Greece for a month , but this was the first actual pelf - making class I ’d taken . I was so full of information by the final stage of the daytime , that I was actually stimulate trouble paying attention going into the final hour . Everything I learned there and shared here was gear toward sourdough - bread making , but you may put these mess - less bakshish to bring for any of your breadstuff - making projects .
