Garlic sourdough, take 2

I made garlic sourdough for the second weekend in a row. Last time it turned out well, but I wanted more garlic pieces. This time, I used two heads of garlic, not just one. But, it turns out, two is a bit too much for everyday eating. It was good in an overwhelming, Stinking Rose kind of way, but not something you'd want to eat for more than one meal. (We did manage to finish it eventually, but it was more out of duty and a great breadbox keeping it fresh, and less because the bread was so good.)

This week's garlic sourdough

This time I also used a starter that wasn't as many hours old, so it had plenty of life in it. I think I did two iterations of starter revivification, one the night before making the dough, and one the next morning. I mixed the dough in the afternoon.

The size of the dough, pre-refrigeration, was similar to last time's. I kind of messed up on the shaping, though. I shaped it once, realized I'd forgotten to add the garlic, and had to shape it again. Like last time, I patted it out into a rectangle, folded it in thirds, and then folded it in half to create a longish loaf. I popped quite a few big bubbles doing this, since the dough was going a little crazy.

The previous week's loaf, just before going into the fridge.

This time, unlike last time, the dough grew a huge amount in the fridge. I'm glad I oiled the plastic wrap.

After ~15 hours in the refrigerator

This time, as I have the past few times, I put parchment paper on a cookie sheet, put both on top of the basket, and then tipped them all over, so the bread could fall onto the parchment-covered cookie sheet. The bread held on a bit to the basket, but not nearly as much as last time.

Ready to go in the oven.
I still could do better with slashing. It took a few tries to get the cuts I wanted.

I meant to use the cookie sheet as a peel, but I accidentally left it in the oven for the first, covered part of cooking. I used our largest pasta pot (from Ikea) to cover the loaf. It's not quite as wide as I'd like, but it's not too confining.

After 20 minutes of baking, I took off the pot... and realized that
I'd forgotten to remove the baking sheet

I removed the sheet and parchment paper and baked until I remembered to take the bread out. Maybe 15 minutes? The bake was a little bolder than I sometimes prefer, but it tasted really good—not burnt at all.

Like last time, the bread wasn't as high as I'd like, so it was a little hard to slice. I think I'm going to try cooking it in a pan next time. Fortunately, my birthday is coming up, and I've asked for a covered clay loaf pan.

A slice

In one place, an air pocket had formed around a mess of garlic. I was a little scared and a little excited to taste it, and rightly so. It was intense!

A bunch of garlic is at the lower left