Sourdough 光頭做麵包

We're finally baking bread. Or at least we're tacking in that direction.

I have read many times that one can bake bread in a pressure cooker. What you are supposed to get is bread with a good crumb but no crust.

The people who said that pressure cooker bread has no crust obviously don't know what the crust of steamed bread is like. The crust on our pressure cooked bread is exactly like that on Chinese steamed buns. The crumb on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired.

Sourdough is made with wild yeast. Mix a cup of flour and a cup of water, tend it for a few days, throwing some away and adding fresh flour and water, and then you get a colony of wild yeast to make your bread rise.
But some wild yeast performs better than ours. Our “Prideaux Sour” culture turned out to be as lazy as our days were at that anchorage.

As the yeast metabolizes the flour, it gives off CO2 and alcohol as byproducts. Well our Prideaux yeast was far more fond of alcohol than the hard work of raising bread. Our culture, although healthy, was swimming in the beery smelling liquor that sourdough bakers call “hooch.” Yet very few bubbles appeared.
When we “proofed the sponge,” which is simply to add flour and water to the culture so that it will kick up its activity, rather than the white froth we were supposed to get, we got a few lackadaisical bubbles, the barest hint of froth, and a whole bunch of hooch. When we used this starter to make our dough rise, not even four hours of rising time would get the dough to double in size. The resulting brick could have been used as a weapon. We thought about feeding it to the ducks, but it sunk so fast in the water that we were afraid they might drown chasing it down or even be sunk by it. But as it stands, it went down so quickly, they never even noticed.

We gave Mr. Prideaux one more chance, giving him an entire day to do his two risings. What we got was a slightly less dense brick with a hint of bread-like structure in parts of its interior. On the other hand, the flavor was good.

So, at Cortes Harbor, we retired Mr. Prideaux and started anew. We have high hopes for Cortessa, who is in her infancy, but bubbling away at a much quicker pace than Mr. Prideaux ever attained.

(翻譯）
終於，我們開始做麵包，或者說，我們朝此方向航行前進。

我多次在書中讀到壓力鍋可以做麵包，只是做出來的麵包僅有鬆軟內層而無香脆外皮。

這些說壓力鍋麵包沒有外皮的人顯然沒看過蒸麵包的外皮。我們的壓力鍋麵包的外皮看起來就像光滑的饅頭，只是內層就差強人意。

酸麵包是由野生酵母製成的。一杯麵粉和上一杯水，靜置幾天，每天倒掉半杯，加入半杯麵粉半杯水，讓麵包漲大的野生酵母就產生了。

但是不同的野生酵母工作績效不一。我們在Prideaux開始製造的的「批鬥先生」懶惰程度和我們在那裡的悠閒生活不相上下。

野生酵母消化麵粉中的醣份，釋放二氧化碳和酒精。但是相較於努力工作使麵包漲大，我們的「批鬥先生」似乎更沈迷於酒精世界中。我們的野生酵母雖然健康無礙，卻僅慵懶徜徉於啤酒香味的酒精製造中，但是產生非常稀少使麵包漲大的泡泡。

製造酸麵包的下一步驟是製作「基本麵糊液」，簡單來說就是在酵母液中加入麵粉液，加速其活動力。「基本麵糊液」上應有一層奶泡似白色泡沫，但是我們的「批鬥先生」僅有氣無力地吐幾口氣，卻產生更多酒精。當我們用此基本麵糊製作麵包，等了四個小時麵包都漲不到一倍大。做出的「磚狀物」幾乎可以當作武器。我們曾想拿來餵野鴨，但是麵包下沈速度如此快速，我們擔心野鴨在搶食時溺水，或吃了後太重而下沈。事實是，麵包下沈速度快到野鴨還沒注意到就已消失蹤影。

我們再給批鬥先生一次機會，讓它有一整天時間好整以暇的漲大麵包。這次的磚狀物沒有之前堅硬，甚至還隱約可以看出麵包的結構。但是，香味極佳。

所以，在Cortes灣，我們讓批鬥先生退休，開始製作另一個麵糊液──「可退小姐」。我們對可退小姐抱有極高期望。她雖仍在嬰兒期，冒出泡泡之多可讓批鬥先生望其項背呢！