I just finished making bread based on Carl's starter, that has a
sumptuous pepper flavor and rich orange color.

In the making of the sponge and the dough, I used no water, but only the
juice of red bell peppers.

To produce the liquid peppers, I smoke-roasted (on my covered bbq grill),
then juiced about 15 fat peppers, and kept cycling the pulp through the
juicer till the maximum was extracted. Then I cooked it to reduce the
fluids till it had a light gravy texture. It tasted very sweet.

I made 900g sponge that was very thick, probably less than 50% hydration.
It's hard to calculate because of the effect of the pepper solids. I let
it ferment as a blob in a covered glass bowl. I used pureed steamed
potato skins, and rye and whole wheat flours exclusively for the sponge.

I mixed 900g flour with 900g pepper gravy, let it sit 30 minutes, added
the sponge, kneaded 2 minutes, added a heaping tablespoon of salt,
kneaded 3 minutes, then covered the bowl to let it rise. It was a nasty,
sticky, reddish mass.

After an hour of rising, I floured up my glass stove top, dumped the blob
on it, and put it through a stretch and fold to redistribute the bubbles.

I let the blob sit in the covered bowl another 30 minutes, then cut it
into 4 pieces, shaped them into boules, and let them rise in individual
parchment bowls (stapled to hold their shapes) covered with plastic wrap.
After half an hour, I sliced the tops with a big +, and recovered them.

After another 45 minutes, I put parchmented boules in a preheated 500F
oven, directly on the baking stone. After 30 minutes, I removed them,
stripped off the paper, painted them with a milk wash, put them back on
the stones to bake, and reduced the temperature to 400F. When the
interenal temperature was 205F (about 55 minutes total baking time), I
removed the loaves and put them on racks to cool.


A few minutes later, my wife Gonoria came into the kitchen with a big
grin on her face, asking me what I had made for her, looking at me, then
at the loaves, back and forth. I grabbed my bread knife and a cutting
board, and began sawing through the crackling crust of the first loaf. I
dobbed the butt slice (her favorite) with butter and handed it to her.
As she lifted it to bite into it, I could see the orange glow of the
bread reflected in her brown eyes. I could smell the roasted red pepper
aroma as she sunk her teeth into the slice.

I have been treated like a king ever since.

The loaf did not last long. I gave half of it to my next door neighbor
Mary (89) who proceeded to devour it after telling me how handsome I am,
and another loaf to another neighbor Catherine (85) who informed me she
absolutely was not going to share it with anyone. The other two loaves
went into the freezer. I'm still working on the loaf I had not finished
when I started this pepper-flavor experiment.

The experiment, judging from audience reaction, was a success.

Gonorio.

"Gonorio Dineri" > wrote in message
.. .
>
" The experiment, judging from audience reaction, was a success."
> Gonorio.

By far my favorite scale of success. I tend to be too judgmental of my own
breads. Everyone else loves 'em. Sounds like a winner to me, something my
wife would love too.

"I used pureed steamed
potato skins, and rye and whole wheat flours exclusively for the sponge."
> Gonorio.

What's the potato skins do?

hutch

"hutchndi" > wrote in
news:E9_pe.7793$R21.6862@lakeread06:

>
> "Gonorio Dineri" > wrote in message
> .. .
>>
> " The experiment, judging from audience reaction, was a success."
>> Gonorio.
>
> By far my favorite scale of success. I tend to be too judgmental of my
> own breads. Everyone else loves 'em. Sounds like a winner to me,
> something my wife would love too.
>
> "I used pureed steamed
> potato skins, and rye and whole wheat flours exclusively for the
> sponge."
>> Gonorio.
>
> What's the potato skins do?
>
> hutch
>
>
>

Well, they taste good. When I make mashed potatoes, I peel them and steam
the peelings with the potatoes. Then I put the peelings and the potato
water in the blender and puree into a brownish gook. I feed that to the
starter, normally with some rye flour. Starter loves it.

"hutchndi" > wrote in
news:E9_pe.7793$R21.6862@lakeread06:

>
> "Gonorio Dineri" > wrote in message
> .. .
>>
> " The experiment, judging from audience reaction, was a success."
>> Gonorio.
>
> By far my favorite scale of success. I tend to be too judgmental of my
> own breads. Everyone else loves 'em. Sounds like a winner to me,
> something my wife would love too.
>
> "I used pureed steamed
> potato skins, and rye and whole wheat flours exclusively for the
> sponge."
>> Gonorio.
>
> What's the potato skins do?
>
> hutch
>
>
>

Potato skins is not perfectly accurate, for they are really potato
peelings, peeled before cooking the potatos, so they have a bit of potato
flesh attached. These, and possibly the skins too, are starchy, which
means they are food for yeast, and therefore suitable for building starters
and sponges.