If you've ever wondered what happens if you forget to slash the top of your bread, this is it. Hard to tell if the loaf is eating itself or giving birth to a Brave New Loaf. Either way, it ain't pretty.But golly GEE, it tastes good! This is the second loaf from the Simple Crispy Bread recipe I made last Thursday, baked after lazing about (I mean, fermenting) in the fridge for three days. The taste was much the same (yeasty and salty--in a good way), but the crumb and texture were very different. In the first loaf, the crumb was pretty tight with a lot of small, evenly distributed holes. In the second loaf, the crumb was looser with some bigger holes here and there, much more like a traditional hearth loaf. The texture was also very chewy and airy--a seeming contradiction in terms, but actually so delicious and adept at holding pockets of melted butter that we ate the entire loaf before I thought to take a picture to show you one of the slices. Oops!
It looks like a reenactment of "Alien", but I'd eat it because it still looks like a great loaf of bread!
ReplyDeleteHow exactly does one slash? We put a little two-inch cross in the top of our most recent loaf and it still ate itself.
ReplyDeleteHiya, Crankopotamus--
ReplyDeleteI've found that a good serrated knife works best for slashing--like a bread knife! You can also use an Xacto knife or, if you want to be super fancy, use a 'lame', which is a special bread-slashing tool. The most important thing is for it to be sharp.
Slash about a quart of an inch to a half inch deep, and make them fairly long--maybe 3-4 inches. You'll want to do it fairly quickly. Just SLASH-SLASH! and you're done.
Check out this post: http://my3loves.blogspot.com/2006/08/baking-our-sourdough-ourselves-part-ii.html
There's a good picture toward the end of a slashed loaf.
Gimme a holler if you still have questions!