A baking sort of day

I made 2 loaves of bread as well as 12 bolso today, feeling pretty good about it all but it really shows that I need to get my bread making endurance up before the farmer's market! Mostly I need to work on timing it all out so that bread is going in the oven as bread is coming out of the oven. It would help if I would just make several loaves of the same kind of bread instead of like today where I made three separate kinds of bread.

First I made Irish Soda Bread, this was partly because I had buttermilk that needed using, partly because I was low on yeast and mostly because I've only made soda bread once and I wanted to try my hand at it again. I modified a recipe I found from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
4 c white flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp shortening (I was out of butter)
1 egg
1 3/4 c buttermilk

For the most part I followed the directions, the main thing I did differently was to dissolve the soda in the buttermilk like I did the last time I made soda bread from a different recipe. And I didn't forget to write down the raisins in the ingredients, I'm not a fan of raisins in bread (or much in general) so I didn't put them in my bread. And I baked mine in a bread pan, not a skillet, and I didn't score it, although I meant to, just forgot.

Next I mixed up the dough for the bolso, regular bread recipe but because I needed to use up my eggs I decided to toss an egg in the dough as well which meant a little extra flour too.

While it was rising I started to mix together the ingredients for my sourdough. This time I tried a 1.5 cups of the starter, last time it didn't have quite a 'sour' enough taste for me. Also I didn't have any beer on hand so I just used water, so the only beer in this sourdough is in the starter. I did toss in a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese though. I set it aside to rise, fed my starter and then made the filling up for my bolso bread.

I sliced up and 3/4 lb of sausage and tossed them all in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and let them cook completely while they were cooking I mixed up one egg and a pound of shredded mozzarella, when the sausage was done I added it into the egg cheese mix (oils from the pan and all) and mixed it all together thoroughly.  

Once the dough had doubled in size I punched it down and kneaded it for awhile on my floured table once it was ready to shape I split it up into 12 equal sized balls. Then one at a time I rolled them out and added a couple spoonfuls of the filling on one side, I folded the dough over the filling and using a fork pressed the edges to seal it together. Placed on a greased baking sheet and proceeded onto the next ball of dough.

Let them rise for about 20 minutes then coat with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tbsp of milk or water, I used milk). Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

I was only able to bake eight at a time (four per cookie sheet) the other four I wrapped in tinfoil and put in the fridge to bake fresh later. They do get quite a bit bigger in the oven, so don't crowd them on the cookie sheet, before baking them it looks like you could maybe squeeze six on a sheet but don't do it. I ate one for lunch as soon as one cooled down enough to eat. Next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside and maybe some spice of some kind, they'd be really good with peppers inside too. They were still pretty tasty just as is though.

Next up the sourdough was ready to punch down and knead for awhile. It was done with it's second rising just as the bolso came out of the oven so that part worked out perfectly as well. Popped the sourdough in the oven and had my first long breather since I started the whole process, I spent the time wisely by talking to my sister on the phone. It took longer to bake then it has the past, a little over 45 minutes instead of the usual 40 minutes my bread takes. It came out looking good and I'll find out for sure when I try some at supper later tonight.

So things I learned today, bolso is fun but time consuming to make and next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside. And I need to work on my timing and endurance for bread making before June 8th.