I finally nailed my sourdough after my grandma's old tip clicked

I was reading an old recipe book my grandma gave me last weekend and saw a note she wrote in the margin about letting the dough rest for 20 minutes after mixing. Always thought it was just a break for me but turns out it lets the flour soak up water and makes the dough stretch way better. My first few loaves were dense and flat no matter what I did. This time I set a timer for exactly 20 minutes before adding the salt and the difference was night and day. The crumb was light and had those big holes you see in bakery bread. Cost me nothing extra, just changed my timing a bit. Anyone else have a simple tweak like that from an older relative that fixed a baking problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron_owens491d ago

Wait, 20 minutes? That's it? My grandma had the same scribbled note in her cookbook but I always figured it was just her telling me to take a break and have a snack lol

evan_dixon671d ago

My mother had a recipe card that just said "cook until it looks right" and it drove me crazy until I realized she meant the color of the gravy should match the color of the countertops in her old kitchen. That note in your grandma's book might have been a real 20 minutes for one specific dish, but half the time my grandma would write things like that and then tell me it really means 10 minutes if you're using a gas stove versus 15 for electric. The whole timer business gets complicated when you consider ovens from the 1950s ran hotter than modern ones by about 25 degrees. I suspect that scribbled 20 minutes was more of a suggestion than a hard rule, kind of like a road sign that says 55 miles per hour but everyone knows you can go 60 without getting pulled over.