Some Bread success!

Bread is looking better

I've been talking and reading a lot about sourdough recently... It's starting to make sense. I baked this loaf yesterday! There was definitely oven spring... It had not risen enough and was a little dense, but it's tasty and I'm happy with progress!

What some of the books/websites  are suggesting is to keep a large active pre-ferment going at all times so that you have the 100-200 gm of starter ready at short notice. The Perfect Loaf recommends a much smaller starter (less waste!!!) and an extra 8-10 hours to build the pre-ferment.  He also has a recommended timeline that suits me better...  There were a couple of issues. I was halving the recipe and I think I got the water wrong; the dough was much too dry, so I added water until it "seemed right". The bread kept it's shape when I took it out of the banneton (at first) but I wonder if under-hydration caused it not to rise as much... 

Another issue was that the oven never reported it was at temp (450 F). Did it hit that temp? I have no way of knowing.  Also, I had the raw loaf out of the fridge and waiting to go in the oven... and waiting... and waiting... So DH ordered me a thermometer and I'll be able to test it. I also suspect the dutch oven wasn't warm enough. 

I didn't do the November cookbook challenge. The recipe I picked called for preserved lemons and mine smelled funky... I ended up making a Rick Bayless Chicken Escabeche recipe. I've repurchased preserved lemons and will go back to the Moroccan cookbook in January.

December's cookibook is Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest: I've already cooked the Black Bean Soup (added extra chili). Very tasty and fast in the Instant Pot.

Komebukuro #1

I've also finished the second rice bag (Komebukuro). It's very similar to the first rice bag but I used a lighter weight lining without interfacing, and added a zipper to one of the lining pieces. I have all of the instructions and pieces in a box, at some point I'll have to decide whether to make another one or two.  This is the first one; the second one looks very much like it and currently holds my knitting in a very stylish fashion.

The purple towels are off the loom but not hemmed yet. Both looms are currently naked! Oh no! I'm hoping to get projects on them this week.