Loafing around

As I have mentioned before - it seems that part of living in the country is the acceptance of artisan bread making. And the longer we have lived out here - the better the bread has gotten. Whether it's the cook books, the skill of myself, the stand mixer or the aging of the starter... something has reached critical mass - and it allows me to create astoundingly tasty - super thick crunchy-chewy loaves of splendid sourdough each and every time.

Comments

[Jeph]

So are you using basically the same recipe/starter and the results are improving, or you're just having fun with different varieties?

Man, I've really got to get back to baking some bread. And the lackluster beer bread I made this past weekend doesn't count!

[Andy Prior]

Did you use the recipe I have on my site for the Beer Bread? it's killer man... hard to mess up.

Most likely issue with beer bread is your baking powder is old - or gone dead...

[Jeph]

I forgot you had that and made the one from Recipzaar that came up first:

3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)

So basically the same thing with more sugar and none of the herbs/cheese. I should definitely try some "add-ins". And the baking powder was actually a new container, just opened a couple weeks ago, so I'm not having any issues with that (and it made some kick ass cinnamon chip scones earlier this week!)