Squash Dressing

● 2 c. cooked Squash, mashed up completely (2 bags 12 oz each frozen) 

● 2 c. Cornbread, crumbled up (a little over ½ small skillet) 

● 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup 

● ¼ c. Whole milk

● 1 stick Unsalted Butter 

● 1 med. Yellow Onion 

● 1 whole jalapeño, or a few pieces pickled from jar

● 1 egg, raw

● dash of thyme

● salt and pepper, to taste

● 1 Cornish Hen, cooked and deboned (optional) 

Step 1: Bake cornbread and let cool.

While cornbread is cooking, boil the squash with a little bit of salt. When done, drain all the water off and mash up finely with a fork.

Step 2: Dice up onion and jalapeno. Melt butter and sauté onions and jalapeño until onions are translucent. Add chicken soup and mix well. Remove from heat.

Step 3: In a large mixing bowl, add cornbread, squash, onions and jalapeño mixture, milk, egg, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add meat from Cornish Hen if desired. 

Step 4: Bake at 350⁰F for an hour and 10 minutes or until done. Some ovens might need more or less time.

"The Adventures of Breaddie Boop" — a Journey to Sourdough and Beyond – Pt 4

Last week I had a fairly successful loaf. After a few months of this I'm about to get it figured out. I think the three major mistakes I was making were —

1) I was actually overworking my dough during stretch and folds. 

2) My starting dough temp was too warm (79-81⁰F) making it difficult to get bulk fermentation right.

3) Not getting my bulk fermentation time right.

I have actually come up with an idea to help me estimate when bulk is complete since you can't go by time alone.  I have been feeding my starter a 1:2:2 ratio.  It usually doubles within 6 hours and continues to rise a little more until about the 8-hour mark.  Then it maintains its peak for several more hours before beginning to fall.  When making dough, it's essentially a 1:5:3½ ratio.  So based on this, I am estimating that if I feed my starter around 30 minutes after making my dough, by the time the starter doubles my dough should be far enough along in the bulk fermentation to begin laminating and shaping at that point.  I allow it a brief rest for about 20 minutes and do a final shape.  Then I place it in the refrigerator for the 24-hour cold retard.  Last week, I used this method and got really good results, so I'm trying it again to see if I can repeat them.

● 100g starter

● 500g bread flour

● 360g Brita filtered water, about 65-70⁰F

● 12g sea salt, natural uniodized

Ambient room temperature 73⁰.

Sun

● 12:55 pm — Initial mix. Rest 60. - 72.1⁰

● 1:53 pm — S&F 1 (1 hr) - 74.4⁰

● 3:56 pm — S&F 2 (3 hr) - 74.1⁰

● 5:02 pm — S&F 3 (4 hr) - 75.3⁰

● 6:40 pm — S&F 4 (5½ hr) Rest and continue bulk ferment. Temp 76.4⁰.

● 8:00 pm — Starter has doubled with 1:2:2 feed. Laminate and Preshape. Temp 77.1⁰.  

● 8:30 pm — Final shape. Into banneton. Cold retard begins. Final BF time is 7:30 hours.

Mon

● 8:30 pm — Remove dough from fridge and place in freezer. Preheat oven with Dutch oven 30 minutes. 

● 9:00 pm — Remove dough from freezer. Score immediately. Place 3 ice cubes in DO. Quickly place bread on top. Place lid and put in oven. Bake at 450⁰ for 35 minutes with lid on, and bake 10 minutes without lid. Check temperature for doneness. 205-210⁰F

Sunday night 

Monday night