HiveFest is now in full swing! Congratulations 
As summer and memories of our Montreal trip are slipping into oblivion I’m turning my attention to more practical things, like baking sourdough bread. I attempted my third bake before I left for Montreal and it was the most successful attempt yet.
I ran out of King Arthur brand flour and the grocery store was out of it so I was forced to buy a cheaper flour.
It was a happy accident because I believe I ended up with better bread using the Bob’s Red Mill flour. I’m a fan of their other products but have never tried their flour and it seems the brand is consistently good throughout.
For this third bake I used the same old trusty recipe. and it worked flawlessly. I did add a handful of chia seeds to the raw dough this time and liked the texture they provided to the finished product.
I took the advice of 
Overall, I was happy with the spring of the dough this time. It rose reasonably well but would have risen higher if I was able to score it more deeply. The razor blade kept getting stuck as I was dragging it across the top of the loaf but I think it was too warm. I’ve since read that scoring is a little easier if the dough is a little cooler than normal refrigerator temperature. I’ll try that next time.
But I do think the next time I bake I’ll let it go for another couple of minutes to achieve a darker, more caramelized crust. I want it to look more like Phil’s caramelized loaf.
I feel like I made decent progress with this third bake over the one before it. The bread was delicious and disappeared in just a few days. It had a distinct sour taste but nothing too overpowering. One thing I really like about sourdough is how easy it is to slice, it holds up well under the knife and there are very few crumbs when you cut through it.
I put my sourdough starter to sleep a few days before my Montreal trip by putting dry flour on top of the starter in the jar and sticking it into the fridge. I’m happy to say that it worked! A day after I returned from the trip I started feeding it again and it “woke up”.
I’ll be baking loaf number four this week. My goal with the next one is even more "spring" and a little bit darker of a crust.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
~Eric
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(Photos are original.)
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