sourdough cheese and bacon breadsticks

With chipotle.

These are 1/3 sourdough starter. 1/3 whole wheat. Those two things vitiate the light airy delicately brittle nature of the original. The original is so much of nothing that it presents the cheese and bacon and chipotle flavors effortlessly. These are tougher, thicker, crunchier, stronger flavored so the cheese and bacon and chipotle are nearly lost, but not entirely. They are disappointing and I won't be doing this again. The original idea is better.

I was afraid of that the whole time. As they were proofing I kept thinking, this is my last chance to trash the idea and squash the four trays back into a dough ball for regular bread. And I kind of wish that I did. Now I must eat them all knowing I could be eating breadsticks that are 100% lighter and more impressively flavored with less flavoring ingredients. An entire cup of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano went into this sourdough version where 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano goes into the original version yet the taste come through better.

baked ↑                                   unbaked ↑

They grow in the oven and sometimes stick together

All of them must be re-baked at lower temperature to dry them out. The idea is zero moisture. Even the cheese must be baked dry.

The light in the room changed. I looked out the window to this. Dec. 19, 2017.