Came across this recipe by Teresa Greenway. although it is a white loaf it was delicious. Double hydration worked easily and dough was fairly firm and easy to shape at 68% hydration. Overnight retard as per recipe, only needed hour and half to proof then baked. Have no DO so steamed up oven well and happy with the result. Will make this again for sure - just wanted to keep on eating it!
and I learnt a huge amount today. Decided to make 100% hydration Bread recipe as posted by TigerX on 3rd March. I must admit I nearly didn't carry on when I twigged that it is a 100% hydration starter and dough! Without method to follow I set out to make this bread doing what I thought would work.
Mixed flours and autolysed 1 hour. Added levain (which I had set up last night) and salt. Mixed on medium speed for about 5 minutes (I have an older Kenwood Chef) then poured into large bowl. After 30 minutes I did 2 s&f 15 minutes apart followed by 3 slap and folds. Amazed to see how the gluten had developed but it was still a very loose dough. Left bulk ferment on bench at about 22oC for nearly two and half hours. Did quick preshape, rested 10 minutes followed by the best I could do with shaping. dough proofed okay and after 2 hours I refrigerated for 45 minutes before baking with as much steam as I could get. The dough just ran everywhere (like a mud stream) even before I got it into the oven, and instead of a batard and a boule I have a couple of ciabatta! that are about an inch high.
what should I have done differently? Taste is good, crumb good, and fairly moist.
Would cold proof have changed anything? more stretch and folds? I have a long way to go but It was a huge learning curve.
The target yesterday was to redo this grain loaf (Multigrain sourdough based on Rose Levy Barenbaum's 10 grain torpedo) and try to do it better , including the suggestions by several other TFL folk. Here's how it turned out -
The Shaped loaf just before slashing (i had issues with shaping)
after baking with steam at 225oC
Crumb shot
In addition made yeasted Baguette with poolish (Hamelman). I increased hydration to 70% and baked as batard so I had more shaping practise
Crumb shot - this blew me away as I haven't achieved so many random holes before (I have made this lots as small boule at the recipe's 66% hydration)
Lastly I also made pain au levain (Hamelman) in small boules (310gms each)
So thank you Fancy Jim for your great suggestions - I also watched a couple of shaping videos but still find it quite challenging with the high hydration grain bread. I love the flavour so will keep on trying to get the shape better. I used finger poke test to decide when they were ready to bake and as I am still waiting for my bannetons to arrive, I proofed the batards on well floured teatowel (rice flour is just brilliant!) with side support from aluminium foil and baking parchment boxes! seemed to work ok today. Bench temperature was about 26oC.
Decided it was time to have a go at using sourdough only in my favourite yeasted bread.
the recipe (From Rose levy Berambaum's Bread Bible) uses white bread flour but I chose to use a little whole wheat in the mix.
Grain soaker - 236 gm mixed grains,113 gm hot water,9 gm salt soaked overnight
final dough
237 gm bread flour
65 gm whole wheat flour
12 gm gluten
153 gm water
12 gm honey
Levain - 85 gm 125% hydration
Mixed final dough, autolysed 40 minutes then added grains, kneaded till combined then did 5 stretch and folds over 2 hours and left to bulk ferment. Thought I had enough strength in dough at this point. Got visitors and it trebled in size (?overproofed ) before I got back to it (about 5 hours of bulk fermentation). Preshaped and did a brief rest, final shape then left to proof. Now this is where I am not sure what I should have done. I was going out for dinner so decided it had proofed close to what it should and baked it as usual with steam. It had spread more than I thought it would and hadnt risen greatly in the oven. The crumb looks ok I think. would it have been better to do a cold retard overnight right after shaping? I wondered about doing retard instead of baking, but maybe it would have overproofed then. Any helpful hints appreciated. Also wondered if I had used enough levain
Today I used my rye starter (converted from white mother) and decided to make a batard. Decided to slightly underproof, added extra steam a la dabrownman (pyrex with rolled cloth steaming) in addition to my normal steam pan. I watched in amazement as it cooked! the steam obviously made the rise much better!!! I have NEVER made a batard this good. I am over the moon! and very happy with the crumb.
The half of the bake was same recipe (vermont sourdough with whole wheat -Hamelman) using my white mother starter. It was slightly slower to proof, baked as the batard and think I have oven spring (at last) as well as more height to the boule. haven't cut the boule as it has gone in the freezer.
was to have a go at a basic sourdough using formula I read on TFL - 1 part starter, 2 parts water, 3 parts flour with 2% salt. I wanted a basic white loaf I could slice and freeze. Made the liquid levain from my firm starter last night and used almost all of it to get 1 loaf and a boule. This was the wettest dough I have ever tried so I did lots of stretch and folds over the early part of bulk fermentation time then left it much longer to ferment on the kitchen bench at about 25oC. Am happy with results as I had wondered how it would ever hold its shape.
Revisited this recipe which was posted on TFL by Dolf I believe. I substituted 50:50 wholewheat:bread flour as I cant find white wholewheat flour. I also reduced honey a little. Very happy how it turned out. First time I have rolled top of loaf in grain too.
Oatmeal was the theme today. Also made Golden Honey Oat bread (Rose Levy Beranbaum). This always turns out well even though I have reduced honey in this one too. This has flaxseed in it as well.
After two years of trying (and failing) to make various sourdough starters I have finally succeeded! I used Maggie Glezer's firm sourdough starter (from zolablue's post). I started in September and it was a little slow, then a family member got very sick so I just put it in the refrigerator for probably 5 weeks before getting it going about 10 days ago. I managed to get it to double, then treble in size in 24 hours but remained frustrated that I couldn't do it in 8 hours. So even though my kitchen is reasonably warm, I set up a heating pad inside a large plastic container which maintained a steady 21 degrees Celcius and inside 2 days I had a lovely firm starter that quadrupled in 8-9 hours. Today, a wet and windy day here, I finally made two 400 gram boules using Jeffrey Hamelman's pain au levain (Bread). I am so happy and exited and when I finally cut it tonight the crumb is great! Reading Zolablues posts have been a huge help.
