Cabin Baking: San Francisco Sourdough French Bread

It's been a long time since I've baked bread. I like doing it, but don't often get the chance to devote so much time to the activity. After a period of dormancy, I've been feeding my sourdough starter regularly. To use some of the excess, I've made sourdough pancakes. This week I thought I would give bread another try.

I won't give my recipe yet because I wasn't totally pleased with the results. But it was fun to get my hands into the dough, and the results were good enough to eat (always a plus). My starter isn't totally back in shape, so I added some extra commercial yeast.

I had to share the kitchen with Wayne who was making our Thanksgiving dinner, so I let the loaf rise too long before baking. You can see it's trying to take over the cookie sheet, and was getting ready to head over the sides. I brushed the top with water and made some distinctive slits with a knife.

A golden crispy crust goes a long way in my book. After eating fresh bread with our prime rib dinner cooked on the BBQ, I've used the leftovers to make croutons for our salads and garlic toast. There's more than one way to fix a so-so loaf.

Do you bake bread? Do you have any favourite sourdough recipes to share? -- Margy