How to make sourdough bread...

[RonB]

We went to a birthday party for a 2 YO little girl, (the granddaughter of my wife's best friend). It was a spaghetti dinner and my wife kindly volunteered me to make bread. So I made Forkish's white bread with poolish. I was very pleased with how they turned out, and the boules got rave reviews from the people at the party.

First shot is a piece of parchment I cut to fit in the dutch oven. The wings make it safer to load the dough into the DO. All I did was trace around the outside of the DO, and then cut inside the line. I turned the risen dough out of the banneton onto the parchment, picked it up by the wings and lowered it into the hot DO.

And the colors are off again. The shots were saved in the standard sRGB used on the net - don't know why they are off...



This is the first of two loaves. (It looks over-sharpened in this post...



Here is a shot of the gluten development.



And both boules.



Ron

[JPACCFL]

I'm intrigued. Nice work RonB I have saved Chef Jacobs video and will be trying this on the wood-fired Primo

[Mudkat]

Thanks looks mighty hearty and tasty!

[Pequod]

Forkish Pain au Bacon. That’s right, bacon bread!

[Potkettleblack]

Made another iteration of Field Blend #2, but wasn't that happy with the outcome. After the last bread I posted, I think I forgot to feed my starter, so did a week of rehab, and then got off my usual schedule for feeding ahead of bread making. I had been feeding the day before, in the evening, then making dough within 24 hours of that final feed. This time, I did a feed in the morning, and the starter wasn't fully recovered for the afternoon on Forkish's schedule, so I let it go another day. Starter was bubbly, but probably wouldn't have floated. So it didn't rise that well. Moist crumb, almost soggy.

I have been using tap water with my starter. I've been reading a lot of people who say that chlorinated water impedes development, so next bread will be made with bottled, as an experiment, to see if it comes back faster.

Got the pizza book for the holidays, my baking steel and peel are shipping today, along with some kitchen food wrap. Hope to produce a nice roman style pizza for NYE.

Anyone else use bottled water, or non-chlorinated water on their starter or bread? Experience?

[Willy]

Potkettleblack I'd offer the thought that if you have been using chlorinated water all along, then chlorine is unlikely to be your problem. Also, if you do choose to do an experiment, you really should do side-by-side tests, keeping everything identical except the water. A test a week, or a day, later really won't prove anything. Chlorine will kill yeast, but I doubt very much that any residential water in the USA has enough residual chlorine to matter.

FWIW, I never bother with the float test once I have an active starter that does pass it. Come to think of it, I'll likely never do a float test again should I make a new starter. Here's my rationale: if your starter will reliably respond to feedings and "bubble and expand", it's plenty active and it doesn't matter if it's past it's "float time" (unless you are trying to maintain a strict schedule). A less active starter may require more time to raise a dough, but it will raise that dough unless it's "sick" or dead. Similarly, you can make a loaf with commercial yeast using the amount prescribed in a recipe or you can use a significantly reduced amount. Time will be longer, but the yeast will act properly over that longer time. One of Forkish's pizza doughs uses only 0.1 grams of yeast! The bread pros all say that a longer rise time yields better flavor anyway.

Probably a good thing to have done the afternoon that you delayed making the bread would have been to feed the starter again. The missed feedings may have hurt it a lot. OTOH, I think maintaining a strict feeding schedule is not necessary--assuming you don't go too long. Heck, you could probably feed it four times a day and be guilty of nothing except wasting flour and your time.

[Thunder77]

I was away from home for work almost a month, so here is my first offering in over 5 weeks. 70% hydration boule.

[scottranda]

Critiques welcome. 400g white flour with 70% hydration. Baked for 19 min with steam (SS Bowl and pizza stone) then additional 7 min uncovered. Eating it tonight. I added 100% (all) the flour and water together last night (no yeast or salt until this morning).

No ears, but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten ears (sad face). Decent rise.

[scottranda]

Potkettleblack no yeast the night before because why not just add yeast the day-of? I’m getting all the flavor from the flour and water by letting both interact overnight (100%). I’ll just use yeast for yeast’s-sake... for rising dough. (Not saying I’ve never added yeast the night before... I’m just experimenting)

Yeah, I like a darker crust too, but my wife likes them a little blonde. Plus if my <2 year old eats it, I don’t want him to struggle with the crust.

[Thunder77]

66% hydration mini-batards. Trying for baguettes, but didn’t quite get there. No matter: they were delicious! I took them
to a holiday open house at my sister’s house, and they were devoured as I basked in the praise.

[barelfly]

How cool! I can read barbecue/grill info and bread in one site! I don’t even know how to sift through this thread but I’ll follow it now.

im a bread lover, although I don’t make it as much these days. My starter hates me for that but, oh well. I also have done well with the no knead type of breads, and have come up with some great breads with green Chile added.

Heres my christmas bread read made from my starter. Not the best looking, as it cracked on me but turned out to be good eats.

[Potkettleblack]

I realized what my problem was, after getting less of a ride and very little spring from that pizza recipe. That didn’t use any of my starter, so it’s not King Arthur. It’s the commercial yeast I’m using. Not using the right thing. My bad.

[scottranda]

Finally! Nailed it! Well, the past few attempts of bread have been awesome. This one is probably my best. I was struggling for SO LONG with not much oven spring. I tried so many techniques, but I THINK the improvement had to do with using a 9” banneton (not 10”) and allowing for more time between the stretch and folds to allow for the dough to develop better gluten structure. I believe I was doing it too soon (5-10 min) which didn’t allow enough time to rest inbetween the stretch and folds. I wait 10-20 min now and I get better gluten development and oven spring (not flat and bleeding out). Now, I need to nail down using the lame, though what I’m showing in the picture is not bad!

70% hydration and 10% semolina and 90% white bread flour.

[DWCowles]

Looks good, scottranda Breadhead would have been proud.

[Spinaker]

scottranda
Nice work!