Bread Slump

Lord I’ve been turning out some lousy bread lately. Part of the reason is that I lost my recipe in the conversion last week, so I’ve been kinda free-wheeling it. The loaves have been coming out pale and gummy, with a vaguely raw-cereal taste, which means they’re under-proofed. It’s the pale-ness that’s the dead giveaway. It means that the critters on the outside of the bread haven’t been given enough time to work. The starches haven’t been converted to sugars, and there’s no caramelization happening. Nuts. It’s been three straight days of this. I gotta get my act together.