To Recipe or To Not Recipe

This loaf is a hodgepodge of ingredients I wanted to use up. I mashed up three decent sized potatoes after boiling them. I added a cup of yogurt that Sue made, but didn't like enough to eat. I dumped in some cooked oatmeal. I can't tell you exactly how much of any ingredient went into the loaf. I simply let my sourdough starter, time, and a lot kneading do their work. The bread was quite tasty, but alas, heavier, with tighter crumb, than I would have hoped.

To make these rye breads from the Auvergne region of France I weighed every ingredient to the gram. The recipe from Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers (Daniel Leader, 2007) is prefaced with an explanation that making Auvergne Rye is quite difficult, but when it works, is worth the effort. I needed more water than the recipe suggested, something you could only know from experience with dough. The oven temperature of 500 degrees nearly charred the rye, but that combination of sourdough and freshly ground rye flour that has cooked at such a high temperature was intense. A cheese sandwich I tried with it was inappropriate. This bread needs to be matched with an equally strong companion such as salami or herring.