Turkey Red on Rye

The top two pictures were taken on Mt Desert Island, ME, home of Acadia National Park. Cadillac Mountain, which is located inside the park, is the first spot in the US to greet each new dawn's light. Mrs PG and I have been there twice and both visits have been fun. During our stay, we were dining dockside in Bar Harbor and listening to the conversations going on around us. First, one, then two, and finally three tables all announced that they were visiting from Ohio and then started talking about where they lived in the Buckeye State.

The loaf didn't start out as a miche or a variation on my psomi recipe. I shaped the loaf as a boule and proofed it with the seam side down. I thought I was doing well because I had gotten such good surface tension during the shaping. The purpose behind proofing seam side down is that when the dough is loadied onto your peel, the seam will be on top. Usually, a boule is slashed to allow for expansion. In this case, the expansion is expected to force out the dough and burst along the seam lines on the top of the boule leaving an irregular and hopefully artistic appearance

My expectations for the appearance weren't met. I can think of two possible reasons; the first being that I had too much surface tension and the second was that the yeast wasn't active enough for the job. The first explanation is more likely. Rather than being disappointed, I'm going to repeat the surface tension method on my next boule and slash accordingly. To eliminate my starter from being suspect in Tuesday's loaf, I'm doing a two stage build to renew the madre. If time permits or I get that wild hair, I could even go to a three stage build if I'm willing to store some of the second stage as a pate fermentee, old dough, in the freezer. I've been guilty of sillier behavior than that before.

The bread itself is just fine. I used just flour, water, salt, and my starter for the loaf so it's not an enriched loaf. It's keeping well enough that I'll run out before the bread dries out.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.