Real-time, Sane Sourdough: Part 6

Now that it's two hours later and the dough looks like this:

Puffy and bubbly.

It's time to rid ourselves of that pot and make some loaves.

First I get the loaf pans ready.

My kitchen equipment can be most charitably described as "utilitarian."

I grease the pans with old butter wrappers I save. There's always some butter stuck to them, and it's usually enough to grease a loaf pan. If it's not, I just get some of the soft butter from the counter and smear it on with the wrapper. Keeps my hands from getting greasy.

You can also use non-stick spray.

Then I scrape the dough out of the pot and onto the floured counter. I immediately put the pot in the sink and fill it with water, because that pot is a bitch to clean even if it soaks. Then I flip the dough over two or three times, just so it's not sticky.

Next I pat it a bit flat, to make it easier to cut.

Like so.

I cut the dough into four pieces with my bread knife. 

I have two one-pound loaf pans, and two pound-and-a-half loaf pans (one of which was the MiL's), which means I don't divide my dough equally, but rather, into two bigger pieces and two smaller pieces. This is challenging, and frankly, I suck at it. If I had a scale, I could weigh the pieces. I don't have a scale, though, and honestly probably wouldn't do that even if I did.

It doesn't really matter if I screw it up, though. This time when I tried to cut two smaller pieces and two bigger pieces (plus one even smaller piece for garlic bread tonight), I ended up with one big pan with too much in it and one small pan with not enough, so I just pulled a chunk from the too-full pan and squished it in with the dough in the not-full-enough pan.

This is what the MiL meant when she said I don't take any particular care shaping them. Understatement of the year.

Here's what the pans looked like after I re-arranged the dough.

They're . . . pans of dough.

I cover them with a damp tea towel:

Shrouded pans.

I bet you can guess what I do now, right? Yes. I wait.

To be continued . . .