How to make sourdough bread...

[RickyBobby]

My third and fourth loaves of Sourdough ever. Decided recently to challenge myself. Made my starter about a month ago and have been experimenting. These 2 collapsed on me a little bit when I took them out of the benetton to bake, but I think the flavor will be good.

[Richard Chrz]

So, to counter point the flour water salt yeast, and to show bias, I bought it, it helped with confidence.

But.... I don’t think it should be bought, unless you want a cookbook. It is good in the sense of confidence in baking, but, you are already making better bread then many. I say, learn the formulas and percentages, with flours you have access to, and just let the process guide you. Percentages, time, humidity, temps, it’s non different then bbq. Just as fun to explore on your own.

[RickyBobby]

Richard Chrz, thanks for the advice! I must admit, I’ve been using variations on about 3 different actually sourdough bread recipes and 4 or 7 different starter recipes. Ratios would be supremely beneficial to me!!!!

[Mark V]

On the Forkish book Flour Water Salt Yeast. I have found it to be more than a cook book.

It has methods for poolish, biga, and 3 methods for sourdough (regular, warm spot, and double fed sweet). When I decide what I want to make I use one of his methods to get what I want.

[Richard Chrz]

Ran some new flour, and my first attempt at a rustic toasted walnut & cranberry. Not bad for my first scratchings for making a new recipe.
A bit over proofed, and a tad too much hydration, also next time I’ll candy the walnuts with butter and brown sugar.

[Mark V]

Sourdough with gochujang, roasted garlic and scallions. Very flavorful, not
an all purpose bread. Good on its own, best in a grilled cheese sandwich.

[Spinaker]

Wow, that looks great!

[RonB]

I agree - that looks great.

[scottranda]

Sourdough bread. Never gets old. And every dough is different!

[treesmacker]

Gorgeous! Cut that open - I want to see inside!

[Thunder77]

Nice!

[scottranda]

treesmacker I forgot! Sorry!! They’re all diced up and I’ll be making croutons tomorrow!

[RonB]

OK bakers, has anyone tried the Forkish's double fed sweet levian? The reason I ask is that I have the bitter gene and anything sour or bitter tastes bad to me. I know that it's possible to bake sourdough that isn't sour, but I have had no luck reaching that goal despite trying everything I have seen on the 'net. I swore to myself that I wouldn't mess with sourdough again, but if anyone has successfully baked some non-sour sourdough, I'd appreciate some info on how you did it.

I might try sourdough again...

[Richard Chrz]

my response is longer then they will allow here. But, yes, and I have made likely 30 plus loaves of that bread. We can chat via private message, or some sort of video call. Likely the better bakers in here will answer it in fewer words.

[RonB]

OK gentlemen - I have settled down now. I'm not gonna start another levian now. Getting a non-sour sourdough defeated me, and I hate to lose. I may do it in the future since I have Forkish's book, but I don't really need to do it.

Richard Chrz & rickgregory

[Mark V]

I have made that bread a few times with good results. There are articles online about how to control sourness. I would have liked to have seen Richard's comments on this though,
I am sure you got a great, thorough explanation and sounds like you have solved the issue.

[rickgregory]

OK bakers, has anyone tried the Forkish's double fed sweet levian? The reason I ask is that I have the bitter gene and anything sour or bitter tastes bad to me. I know that it's possible to bake sourdough that isn't sour, but I have had no luck reaching that goal despite trying everything I have seen on the 'net. I swore to myself that I wouldn't mess with sourdough again, but if anyone has successfully baked some non-sour sourdough, I'd appreciate some info on how you did it..

So... first off, I don't view sourdough as inherently superior to straight doughs. If you like using regular yeast like SAF Red, use it.

Second, if you like the flavors of sourdough when they're not overtly sour, do this:

1. Take a good, healthy starter. Does it smell to acidic to you? If no, bake with it and see if you like the result.
2. If #1 is a yes or if the loaf was a little too sour, make sure you're using the levain as it peaks, not as it collapses. A starter will become more acidic as it collapses.
3. If you are using it as peak and it's too sour, do several feeding with a higher ratio of flour+water to starter AND bias it to a stiffer starter. So, if you're feeding the starter at a 1:5:5 ratio (one part starter, 5 each of water and flour), try do a 1:8:10.
   
   An example:

Say you've been doing 20g of starter and 100g each of water and flour as your usual feed. Try 10g of starter, 100g of flour and 80 or 90g of water. This will be less liquid and a little stiffer. Do this for a few days, then try baking a loaf, again using a levain as it peaks.

[Mark V]

Baked a sourdough loaf with turmeric and onions today. Good combination, will do this one again sometime.

[SheilaAnn]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[MBMorgan]

Very nice!

[Thunder77]

Turmeric never occurred to me as a bread ingredient. Cool!

[RickyBobby]

So, I’ve been struggling with my discard. There are many options to actually use it, but honestly, I usually just pitch it because I don’t have the time. I grew my starter about 3 times because I sent some off to my mom an brother. Since I had more than my normal discard, I decided to try Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls........ very Jenny Craig in case you were wondering........ 🤣

.
. .

[rickgregory]

Some idea here, too. https://www.theperfectloaf.com/colle...scard-recipes/

[MBMorgan]

C'mon ... your waistline LOVES that approach ... just ask your mirror (the one that hates you ... like mine).

[HawkerXP]

Feel free to discard some of those in my direction!

[Richard Chrz]

I am giving these two away, so will not cut them open, but likely will bake 2 more tomorrow, and maybe 2 more Saturday. I will likely keep one.

[RonB]

Looks great as always.

[RonB]

@RichardChrz - I don't like having the ears, so I don't shape 'em. I just round over the end like a sub roll.

[RonB]

When you make boules, save one dough ball for a batard. Check the proofing on the boule and then bake the batard at the same time. You can use an inverted disposable aluminum pan to cover the batard to help steam the crust.

[Richard Chrz]

I enjoy baking these batards more then boule’s, I use a pizza steel, with a half bake sheet pan one level under, and then mist inside every 5 minutes with a spray bottle. Then I can use a pizza peel to load off load, and not worry about sticking my hands in the Dutch ovens.

[RonB]

We went to Costco today and they now have 12 lb bags of KA AP flour for $6.79 which works out to ~ $0.57/lb. When I buy it at the local grocery, it's ~ $4.50 for 5 lbs which works out to ~ $0.90/lb.
I don't know how long they have been carrying this, but today is the first time I have noticed it.

[Richard Chrz]

I picked up this flour at Sam’s club 25 lb bag for less then 9 dollars, I was expecting to be less then happy, but, quite the opposite, over performed my expectations, it took a while though to figure out the starter. Once I got it, now I feed it ice water to slow it’s roll.

[Richard Chrz]

Baked two more this morning, have two more in process for tomorrow, gifts for my family.

[Richard Chrz]

Skip thank you for the kind words. Not sure I have seen very many bad loaves of bread shared in here. I’m pretty happy with how this loaf has improved over time. I closed the book on a basic sourdough, and decided to do more trial and error approach. Books are great to get you started, but at some point you have to figure it out for your own needs. I’m sure somehow we are family... lol

[treesmacker]

Lucky family!

[SheilaAnn]

Now cut that out..... pm me for my mailing address so I can gets me some! 💕

Seriously, fantastic looking loaves, my friend!

[Richard Chrz]

My last two loaves for the week. Now to expand upon this weeks lessons to self in bread.

[RickyBobby]

My latest loaf. From yesterday. It’s already gone....... lol. Still not the prettiest, but good! Also tried to make a smiley face with the lame for my daughter. Kinda worked!

.

[Richard Chrz]

Love all of it, especially the smiley face 😊

[Richard Chrz]

I put two more to bed for the night.