How to make sourdough bread...

[jhapka]

It had been a couple weeks with the flooring install.

[Richard Chrz]

This mornings bakes.

[Richard Chrz]

This mornings four bakes.

[MarkN]

I have struggled making a worthwhile loaf of sourdough bread for some time now. I am definitely a novice and an amateur, but after attempts that had too hard of a crust, not enough rise and flavor that just wasn't what I was looking for, I managed this loaf yesterday. My best effort so far. Not perfect, but it had everything I was looking for. I guess I must have learned something following along here.

[SheilaAnn]

Amazing looking crumb!

[rickgregory]

Ok my new starter is almost ready but i was out of sandwich bread so I made Ken Forkish's White Bread with Poolish. A poolish is just a sizable amount of the flour and water mixed with a little of the yeast and left to ferment overnight. That's then mixed with the rest of the flour, yeast and water and some salt, then proofed.

Flour for this was Cairnsprings Trailblazer, a Yecora Rojo bread flour that Tartine and others use. It was my first time using it as it's $$ for the small 2lb bags in the store. But it's great stuff .

[RonB]

Looks great, but ya may be eatin' some ginormous sandwiches.

[rickgregory]

RonB - haha... not really. It looks huge in the crumb shot for some reason but they're about the same size as supermarket breads.

[jhapka]

After a few 100% whole wheat loaves with unifine milled Rouge de Bordeaux to get a feel for the flour’s characteristics I went back to 10% and have worked my way up to 40% whole wheat

[Richard Chrz]

This mornings bakes.

[Mark V]

I am about 2 and a half years into making sourdough. I don't bake every week, but fairly often, I go in spurts. I think I am just now at the point that I might have good questions and some understanding. I certainly had questions before, but now I think I have just enough experience to really start questioning things and learn. I have made plenty of different breads, which interested me. Now I am going back to basics, starter, hydration, shaping, timing, etc.

In my quest for different breads, I have made a few I did not really care for. Made a Pane Tipo di Altamura (durum flour - Semola Rimacinata), came out looking just like the pics, people said it was mostly good for eating with olive oil and that was it. Didn't care for it, so no pic.

Have made a few with corn flour and have had interesting results.

Below is a loaf of a Portuguese corn bread, Broa de Milho. Looks just like the pics, so I didn't mess up. Was really disappointed in the flavor, and is a really dense loaf.



Also made a corn porridge and rosemary bread from a recipe on Breadtopia. That was really good, even though no pic because unfortunately I made another attempt at open oven baking and that didn't rise so well. I will do this one again in a DO. The crust comes out kind of crackly due to the corn flour, really good. I will work on the open oven baking more. I usually only try one thing at a time!

[Richard Chrz]

Today’s bake 4 of the 6 at least.

[RichardCullip]

You've got the process down for sure. Very consistent results.

[jhapka]

800 g KA bread flour, 100 g spelt, 100 g Rouge de Bordeaux unifine wheat flour. 77% hydration

[58limited]

Richard Chrz Kindly gave me some of his starter. It is the most active starter I've ever used, revives very quickly even fresh out of the fridge. Today I followed Richard's method to the T except I had to add extra water to the dough when I mixed it initially: I used 70% of the flour weight instead of 65% as Richard posted awhile back. Up until now I've been cooking bread in a Dutch oven, I get a good rise but nothing like what Richard gets. Today I used a pizza steel and a sheet pan with water in it like Richard uses. My oven is different and smaller than Richard's (1950 O'Keefe & Merritt) and I thought I would try an experiment: I cooked the loaf on the right at 475^o and the loaf on the left I started at 425^o for the first 15 minutes then bumped to 475^o. Here are the results:








Made a sandwich with leftover pulled pork from 1701 BBQ.

[Skip]

Both loaves look great!

[Richard Chrz]

So are you enjoying it a few days later? It’s interesting that you say that. I buy into the idea that bread ages well, just when it hits, you have to eat it all. I’ve read some believe 3 days based on the loaf. I so rarely eat bread, really only as a quality check.

[58limited]

Yes, I enjoy it better a day or so after baking. The flavor improves and the sourness comes out more. I usually store it in the fridge so it will keep a little longer.

[Richard Chrz]

Yesterday’s bake.

[Richard Chrz]

Two from this morning.

[RonB]

I think that's the largest bagel I have seen.

[hoovarmin]

RonB that’s not a bagel it’s a flotation device

[SheilaAnn]

Would need about 4# of my beet cured salmon for the "bagel" 💕

[hoovarmin]

Richard Chrz forgive me if you’ve answered this a hundred times, but is there a specific method you employ? I’m sticking with Forkish’s til I master it but am hoping to try others later.

[Richard Chrz]

I have kind of made my own method, and worked away from it a few times. And continue to come back to it as my favorite (certainly just one method). There is a thread in here in baking where I highlight my steps, and thoughts, but, always willing to answer how I can. I’ve floated the idea even of a live bread talk, where I can go through a few of my steps. P.s. I don’t think there is such a thing as mastering bread or a perfect loaf.

[Richard Chrz]

A few from today.

[RonB]

Well done Richard. Looks like you have a handle on the batard shape.

[hoovarmin]

Good Lord, Richard. Those are just beautiful.

[Richard Chrz]

I’m really having fun exploring the crustier summer loaves. Fougasse is going to be my fav, well, they all are fun, as you find all the ways to do this stuff in shaping s proofing. I’m still a long ways from where I want to be, but, I’m a lot more confident then I was not all that long ago.