so we're out for a meal at one of those fancy tasting menu places and they went on about the sourdough for some elements of it so i was obv delighted to talk yeast with the chef
and when they bring us out our bill stuff and little extras at the end of the night look what i was gifted:
he's goin in my checked luggage, looks like lassy is getting a NEW SIBLING SOURDOUGH!
You can hear this bread. One second I'll show you. Please listen to my bread
This is a loaf of asiago chunk sourdough. Inside there are chunks of asiago. The dough was mixed with mashed garlic as well. The sound in the video is the cheese bubbling in the interior, echoing in the air pockets of the loaf. I'm going to eat the shit out of this for breakfast tomorrow.
This is the world's easiest sourdough loaf too, with only 6 hours total rising/proofing time!
Ingredients:
455g white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
285g warm water
100g active, bubbly starter
120g Asiago cheese
(optional) crushed garlic to taste (I use about 2 cloves worth and it's a lot)
Asiago chunk sourdough bread
Cut asiago into smallish chunks
Combine flour and salt in one bowl
Combine starter and water in another bowl, stir until starter is dissolved.
Mix flour into the wet mixture until a dough begins to form. Knead on a well-floured surface until dough is smooth.
Mix in cheese (and garlic) until well incorporated
Dust rising bowl (solid! Not a basket!) with flour. Let dough rise 1 hour in warm spot, covered with plastic wrap
Fold over around the edges, place back in bowl seal-side down for 1 more hour
Repeat folding over around the edges, place back in bowl seal-side down for 1 more hour (3 total rising hours to here)
Shape dough into round if not, and place into proofing basket for 3 hours. Toward the end of this, preheat oven to 450F, with the cast iron pot so it's HOT when you add the dough.
Dump your dough onto your kneading board, fold over around the edges one more time, slice the top DEEPLY.
Bake 30 minutes seam-side down in covered cast iron pot at 450F. Remove lid, bake for another 30-40 minutes with lid off. (Cook time may vary on location and oven... MY OVEN takes this long. I just baked a loaf at a friend's that baked WAY differently, it was done in about 40 minutes total)
Remove and let cool completely before slicing. You can freeze it but slice it first.
today, nearly 2,000 years ago, someone in pompeii baked bread.
Ahh, picture it. The time, around 2,000 years ago—the place, Pompeii. Simpler, happier times in some ways; and for the ruthless power games, insatiable sexual appetites, wild ambition, and creative genius, less so in others. However, following yesterday's foray into pastries, and all things fluffy, warm, and flakey, it dawned on us that this day around 2,000 years ago a happy chappy somewhere in the city's magnificent walls got to work and made some bread. CIL vol. IV 8972: XIII K. Maias panem feci—which translates as: On April 19th I made bread. And we love that for you, even millennia later! So, one day after our sweet celebration, it's time to pay homage to pastries' savory counterparts by marking April 19 with #bread. And a happy 2,000th anniversary to whichever miscellaneous Pompeian who decided not simply to make bread, but to mark the occasion with graffiti. But how do we know this? Well, it is thanks to the enquiring minds as evident in this post from @todayiwrotenothing, and indeed this commemoration on Reddit. Every day is a school day over here on The Internet.
Today it comes in countless forms, shapes, and sizes: wholewheat, rye, sourdough, multigrain bread, baguette, ciabatta, pumpernickel, soda, focaccia, cornbread, bagel, flatbread, naan, brioche, challah, and, last but by no means least, the ever-trusty white bread. As you will shortly see in the following string of bready content, this is simple yet limitless food: it can be braided, made by illustrated cats, or indeed constructed in the shape of the dashboard's beloved, hapless vessel, the good ship Ever Given.
So here's to you, as-yet-unnamed Pompeian who not only makes the bread, but brags about it too. We think you would have enjoyed this one-day tribute to your escapades here with #bread. We shall submit a formal application to rename it Tumbread, in your honor. But that's still not all: rumor has it there is sister graffiti that reads "Olivia condita XVII Kalendas Novembres"—so come back on November 16th for preserved olives.