Our good friend, and former boys' Scoutmaster, Keith, came to visit us last week. Keith recently moved to Vermont from Texas - and was in town to help support a STEM Merit Badge University day at UVM. He arrived Friday night with a mason jar full of sourdough starter and thus we launched in to an entire weekend of baking.
(So much for our plan to try and shed 25 pounds by April. Ha!)
For whatever reason, when the rest of the world was going wild over sourdough during the pandemic, we never even attempted it. But Keith did - and over the past four years - he perfected his recipe and technique. As an original New Yorker, he also perfected the art of bagel-making, which he also shared with us, last weekend.
In case you didn't know (I didn't!) sourdough has been around for thousands of years, originating in Egypt. It doesn't use "commercial yeast" to rise, but rather, a "starter" which is fermented flour and water. It rose to big fame (get it, rose?) in the US, during the California Gold Rush of 1849, because miners could easily make or obtain starter. And that's why sourdough bread is such a big deal in San Francisco. Don't you love history? I do!!
The sourdough bread we baked with Keith was phenomenal.
It was a heavenly experience consuming this bread, hot out of the oven, with a pat of butter. My spirit left my body for a moment.
The bagels, however, which we made with yeast, sank like rocks when we boiled them. What we learned during the process, is that the 3-gallon bag of yeast we bought at Costco two (five? ten?) years ago, and have been storing in our cabinet, is completely kaput. We might have clued in to this earlier seeing as we bake with it frequently, and often lament that our dough has a dismal rise. But alas, the light didn't fully come on until Keith observed that the bagels which had been stored in the refrigerator overnight, were flat as pancakes, and he had to scrape them off the bottom of the pot as they boiled. His comment, "This isn't yeast. This is least."
That didn't stop us from scarfing them down, though, while making a mental note that we would buy fresh yeast and repeat the process. Soon.
Soon arrived yesterday. Charlie and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen - he on one side making bagels, me on the other side, "feeding" my starter and making more batches of sourdough.
After letting everything "proof" in the refrigerator last night, this morning was the grand test.
The bagels had risen!
They floated!
They baked to perfection!
I'll bake the loaves of sourdough, tonight, just in time for the scores of college students that will be arriving home for a monthly home-cooked dinner. Currently debating if we should serve more than bread and butter....? Honestly, that's enough for me. With a nice Pinot.
The most exciting development in all of this, however, is that during this baking frenzy we've discovered that King Arthur, the KING OF FLOUR, is *just* down the road a spell.
King Arthur flour is in Vermont.
The factory.
The store.
The cafe.
Anywhooo. You'll never guess where Charlie and I are headed this week?
