I guess I should start with the pain au levain. I think that is frenchy for sourdough. About a week ago I had what I figured was a good healthy sourdough starter so I started on the first sourdough recipe in the book. Everything seemed to go pretty well up to the baking. I made up both loaves figuring I could just bake them at the same time. The first sign that there might be a problem was that they didn't seem to grow quite as much as they should. After baking them for a very long time they never cooked all the way through. I am not sure exactly where things went wrong. Could be that the yeast just wasn't as healthy and strong as I thought, but there was something else odd. The tops halves had big air pockets like you want to see, but the bottom were very dense. So the problem could just be that I screwed up the shaping. The last potential gotcha was whole wheat. The recipe had a some whole wheat flour and I have heard that whole wheat flour gain be a bit more difficult. There was some good news...the bread had great flavor.
So last night I started up a batch of "San Francisco Sourdough". The big difference is that this recipe has no whole wheat flour. In theory my starter is a bit healthier and stronger so it should perform better. I also only made half a batch, so if things go all hinky again there will be less wasted flour.
After the sourdough failure I was a bit discouraged so I decided to make another batch of french bread. I can't quite make it from memory yet, but I am getting pretty comfortable with the process. One area that I am still not real happy with is the shaping. What I am doing seems to work, but I know that it isn't quite right. I have been watching some videos and think that I am on the right track, but the thing you can't really learn from a video is touch. I am not sure how much pressure I am supposed to be using, so I just need to keep practicing.
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