The results of the first attempt

I made the levain yesterday morning and added the final batch of flour, water and salt to make the final dough for the bread. My initial enthusiasm with the chef, maybe because I was a bit merry from the pub, had waned once the levain was made and had left to rise. Supposedly it was meant to double in size, but even after a whole night in the airing cupboard not much had happened. Nevertheless I ploughed on and mixed and kneaded until my arm hurt.

Knocking back the dough twice during proving was almost unnecessary as there was very little air to squash out. I had read that you can leave the final dough to rise in the fridge overnight for an even better aroma so as a last ditch attempt I tried this.

After a night of dreaming about light pillowy bread I got up early to bake my loaves before work. Optimistically I hoped something had miraculously had happened in the fridge but nothing had. I had got this far, I thought, so I might as well bake them. Taking them out after thirty five minutes I was surprised at how appealing, if small, they looked. Cutting into them, however, was as I imagined. Thick, compacted crumb with few, if any, holes. I am disappointed.

Thinking about where I might have gone wrong it seems obvious to start with my yeast. In my yeasty fermentation jar there was an alcohol smell and bubbles so I thought that it would be ready. This initial stage to encourage the yeast to grow is quite a delicate process, I think, so I might have done something wrong. I have read in other places that spring water should be used because tap water can be chlorinated and this can kill yeast cells rather than encourage them.

My next plan is to tinker with my raisin yeast. I drained the raisins out and have the yeasty water in a jar in the fridge. I think I'll try and cultivate this further because there must be some yeast cells in there. I have also started a sourdough culture, just flour and water, and hopefully that might yield something. I have discovered that this process is a lot more complex and challenging than I first thought. The airing cupboard will be full of experiments for a while now though, I'm not giving up until I make something that can be described as bread!