Snowshoes and Baking...

...though not at the same time.  
Yesterday I prepared my sourdough and left it in my "fridge" overnight. Of course there's no room in our real fridge so in the winter I use my clothes closet! It is on the outside of the house, unheated, and under the edge of the roof where there is very little insulation. It is currently at 5°C, which makes it ideal for the final bread fermentation, even if I do shiver slightly when I put on a chilly shirt! Once the bread is cooled down like this not much happens so most recipes say it can sit in the fridge between 8 and 24 hours.
Since the day was looking good we decided to do a snowshoe walk first, and bake a little later in the day.
I enjoyed showing Jan the paths I had trodden out yesterday and the going was much easier today.  We trod out another couple of paths up on top of the hill.  I love living here, next to the forest. We can have these mini-adventures, with lots of fresh air and fun, starting at our front door and not getting more than 700 metres from the house!  The photo is taken right on the edge of our garden. I took the picture from above and Jan thought she looked a bit deformed. She isn't!
Once home I put the oven on to warm thoroughly and we had a cup of coffee. Then i got into the baking.
I still haven't regained the knack for baking bread like this one, and as I shaped my loaves yesterday I could feel there was a lack of strength in the dough. Once again they didn't rise as I hoped, when in the oven.  A bit more than last time (encouraging) but still rather flat. (See extra.) After consulting various gurus on YouTube I decided I have been working the dough too much and/or leaving it too long in the kitchen. This means it over-ferments and the yeast consumes some of the gluten and all the sugars in the flour.  Next time I bake I'm going to handle it a lot less and see how that works out.  As usual it tastes delicious and the texture is fine, even if it isn't what I want.  We'll eat these loaves and let the experimentation continue.