summary: interestingly shaped bread; what to do with dough that has over-risen overnight; make sure there’s plenty of flour under shaped bread before transferring to the oven; information about YeastSpotting (click on image to see larger view and more photos)

Update on that oozing bread dough from yesterday, to answer Ollie and Gosia: Why yes! It did turn out. Amazingly well.

Yesterday, when I examined the oozing bread dough more closely, it was clear that what was still under the lid was fine. It was quite sloppy dough anyway (did I put a little less flour than usual? I know I was somewhat casual about measuring…), but it had become even more sloppy with the over-rising and possible under-kneading. (I was experimenting with a quasi no-knead technique, kneading in the bowl just after mixing, only enough to make sure there were no large lumps.)

It wasn’t so sloppy to be croc sloppy though (thank goodness), so I had hope that the bread would turn out. And happily, my hopes were not dashed.

Very much.

The recipe is supposed to make three loaves. But I had to cut away a considerable amount of dough – everything that was on the floor of the unheated area by the backdoor was toast (no pun intended).

Yes, it’s true. I haven’t swept or vacuumed there recently and there has been a LOT of tracking back and forth from the barbecue and herb pots on the patio that is now covered in little golden leaves.

So. There was still enough dough to make two good sized boules. Initially, I was going to toss the slightly dried dough that was outside the bowl but not on the leafy floor. And then, throwing whatever caution was left to the winds, I simply tucked the dried part inside the loose wet dough and shaped away.

Because the dough was quite wet, I put LOTS of flour on the board before leaving the loaves to rise. I did. I really did.

When the oven was nicely preheated, I chickened out on moving the loaves onto the stone and asked T to help me. He looked at me pityingly and using the SuperPeel, with a triumphant flourish, he transferred the first loaf to one side of the hot stone.

He then picked up the second loaf and…

he: What the…??

me: [feeling of doom] What? What’s wrong?

he: [sound of teeth grinding] We should have put extra flour down!! [spitting noises] It’s stuck! [$&#*&**RR($+++(&&^&#] It won’t come off the peel. [stretching and wrestling dough away from the peel] Finally. [closing oven door]

me: [looking through oven window] It’s falling off the stone!!

he: [quickly opening oven and trying to lift edge of bread up onto stone] #^&##(*#($)

me: [scrabbling in drawer] Use this spatula!!

he: [watching dough immediately fall down over edge of stone] Forget it! We’ll just have to fix it when it has set a bit.

And, that’s exactly what we did. About five minutes later, T successfully pushed the errant dough up on top of the loaf.

If we knew how to reproduce this effect without the major angst involved, we would. It’s beautiful!!

Here is the recipe I used to make this bread.

• Standard Sandwich Loaf

Just one word (okay… a few more than one) of caution: if you are mixing the dough the night before and allowing it to rise overnight, put the bowl in the fridge!! Unheated rooms will probably not drop to 10C if the outdoor temperature only drops to 15C.

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