Mixing and first rise went along as normal. Knocking back and second rise went along as normal, with the shaped loaves placed in their dishes (one of which is on the left in the illustration) and lidded (one of the lids is upper right in the illustration).
For convenience of carrying and rising, the loaves are arranged one above the other, the flat bottoms of the lids making this possible - which it would not be with the expensive bread domes sold by the likes of John Lewis and Lakeland.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, the first time ever, something happened as I was taking the loaves out of the airing cupboard at the end of their second rise, and the top loaf - plate, loaf, lid and all - fell to the floor, up-side down.
With the result that the lid was badly dented and the loaf ended up in the lid rather than on the plate. Rise vanished, all the wind out of its sails. The last time that I lost rise, because I had allowed the second rise to go on for far too long, the bread refused to rise again, so I thought that I had lost this loaf. However, while the loaf which had not been dropped went into the oven, the loaf which had been was reshaped and put back in the airing cupboard - and rather to my surprise it started to rise again. After repeating the normal time of 90 minutes we had something not far short of a normal rise. Baked it and we had something not far short of a normal loaf, as illustrated. Even a touch of crackle as it cooled, just about visible when the illustration is enlarged.
I did not get to eat it fresh, but it was OK this morning. Catastrophe averted.
PS: in the margins I attempted a bit of panel beating on the bowl, the one illustrated, using a ball peen hammer with a bit of cloth for a pad. Not a bad job, and one could easily miss the damage now. Almost as good as new. Another first.
No comments:
Post a Comment