The Finished Product

So, from a bowl of bubbly liquid dough, to a beautiful loaf, on Friday I finally finished it! After a final addition of flour, it went into this industrial sized mixer to knead....

Then after two risings, I shaped it into tins....

...and tentatively watched it in the oven as it turned into this.....

It was really delicious, but one could be forgiven for deciding life is in fact too short to spend 10 days making two loaves of bread! Tim and Rachel Allen did a demo together a few weeks ago (on sourdough, coincidentally) and they started talking about the embarassment of going on holiday with Darina. She refuses to eat any form of airport/aeroplane food and instead packs the most enormous picnics you've ever seen, then dishes them out to everyone on the plane! With Darina off this weekend to the UK for a slow food event, the sourdough was specially selected for her picnic, a happy ending to its life, I think!