Giant Breads

This is a post about giant breads.  The first is this giant focaccia that the boy made.  It was incredible tasty--I think he used the recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking, adding roasted garlic and some Italian herbs.  It was dense and tender and all the things that focaccia should be.

This is also a post about giant sourdough.  I tried to make sourdough with "wild yeast."  I was skeptical, but I made a starter and it started to get sour smelling and bubbly, so I figured it would go okay.

The first sponge:

Bubbles are a good sign.  However, the dough did not rise very well in the oven and produced a clay-like loaf that nevertheless tasted wonderfully sour.

After a few slices, I tore up the loaf and am saving it for thickening soups or laying bricks.

Desperate for some fresh bread, I took the remaining starter and made a dough...this time cheating by adding a packet of active yeast.  The result was a giant goddamned loaf of bread:

This picture doesn't really put it into perspective.  Let's try again.

It was delicious and tender, but it was also not very sour.  In fact, it only had the slightest hint of sour.  Next time, I will try using an Alton Brown recipe...  But for now it's time for a break.  I don't think I can handle so many consecutive sourdough failures.