Kamado Joe Big Joe III
Pit Barrel Cooker
Camp Chef Flat Top 900
Weber Performer 22
PowerFlamer Propane 160
Meater +
Thermoworks Smoke
Thermoworks Thermapen
Temp Spike
First boule from my starter is the best I've ever made
Wow, I have no idea why I waited so long to start batching up a starter (levain, Huskee lol). I did the Pain De Campagne recipe from the Forkish book, and it had every reason to go wrong. I started too late and didn't have the amount of starter the recipe called for. Then I fell asleep and missed my "deadline" to get it into the proofing basket by several hours (which I now realize worked to my benefit since I was short on levain). It's the best bread, by far, I've made to date.
That said, I would love for those of you who, unlike me, know what they are doing to comment on what I could improve from the visual data below.
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
VERY nice. I don't know that you can materially improve on that. As to the process... yeah, if you don't have enough starter, the fermentation just takes longer. Fermentation is basically an interplay between a few things:
1) Amount of starter. More precisely, the percentage of starter in the dough.
2) Time
3) Temperature. This breaks down into the dough temperature at the start of fermentation and the ambient temp.
The first pic shows a nice active starter. I think you nailed it pretty well.
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pellet Pizza Oven
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks Square DOT
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Joule Turbo Sous Vide Circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
Lots of sources online recommend higher and higher hydration, different shaping methods, and recommend different approaches to ovencraft. IMO if your fermentation is truly active and well managed the rest doesn’t matter as much. Your fermentation and bread look great
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