How to make sourdough bread...

[Potkettleblack]

Made two loaves of Forkish’s field blend #2. Mine is a bit more rye than he calls for as I feed my starter with whole rye flour and white AP flour, instead of WW/White AP like he does.

Made a miscalculation and was 40g of starter short. Result was a less levain tasting bread, but still very good. Might be a better sandwich bread. Might not.

I cooked the loaves sequentially, letting the first loaf go the full time and get really dark. Think it went a bit far. I scored the second loaf (which was a bit bigger because I’m bad at dividing), to try and get a bit more spring. Worked. Also cooked it nine minutes less. Haven’t cut into loaf 2 yet, but 1 was just this side of burned, and 2 has great visual appeal.



wife has requested a bacon bacon studded loaf next.

[Skip]

Very good looking loaves Potkettleblack. Good job!

[Potkettleblack]

I will say that the flavor improved greatly on the second day, but I wonder where it would be for 40 more G of starter.

[Steve R.]

That looks so good, I would feel guilty about cutting it!

[RonB]

Potkettleblack - they look super.

[Thunder77]

Beautiful loaves! Field Blend #2 is on tap for me this weekend.

[Potkettleblack]

Pain Au Bacon from Forkish, ala PKB. It’s PKB because my starter is mostly white with some rye, while forkish keeps it all wheat. Had a minor mishap transferring first loaf from baneton to pot, so it’s a bit crooked. Used a parchment paper sling to load the second loaf (in the foreground and the closeup).

Full from using the end of FB#2 to make French toast this morning, so haven’t cracked the loaves yet.

[Thunder77]

Beautiful work! I can hear the crackling as the knife goes through that crust!! 👍👍 well done sir!

[Potkettleblack]

This was my best crust, by far. Not sure if that's the white flour or the pure levain, or the shorter cook time. I went 30 mins covered, then 15 uncovered... Not super dark like Forkish goes, but still, pretty.

[Potkettleblack]

Next up is Overnight Country Brown... which intrigued me because he mentioned Lionel Poilane in the description of the bread. I might want to work out how to do the 4 lb boule in my setup, but only if I can do so without buying anything additional. I do have a 7qt cast iron dutch oven that I might like to try out.

[RonB]

Somehow it seems fitting that Breadhead keeps popping up from time to time...

[Potkettleblack]

This thread has so much that is good about the board that we really should keep it going.

[Spinaker]

I agree. This is one of the best threads in The Pit. Potkettleblack

[Thunder77]

Absolutely!

[Willy]

I don't think I've come with the best version of this, surely not, but I'll bet that someone improve on this.

Bakers rise to the occasion.

[Potkettleblack]

Today’s experiment, Overnight Country Brown, 30% Whole wheat, 78% hydration, Overnight ferment with 12% starter.

[Thunder77]

Beautiful loaves!

[RonB]

Potkettleblack and others - The cheapest way to get a lame is to make your own, and it's very easy. All you need is a bamboo skewer and a razor blade. Just flex the blade until you can push the skewer through both end slots in the blade and you are done. It's not fancy, but it works very well. The curve in the blade is supposed to make it easier to cut at an angle, but it's not necessary.

[RonB]

Potkettleblack - I almost forgot - great looking boules.

[Willy]

Regarding the lame: The one MBMorgan linked to is the one that I own. I dislike it (no slam intended) because the blade can come loose at times in the act of docking, especially for someone like me with a tremor. Can anyone explain why the blade can't be fixed and what the advantage is, if any, for a curved blade? KA sells a fixed blade version, but I ain't paying $33 plus shipping. Perhaps I'll make my own.

[Potkettleblack]

Thunder77 Do you have a lame that you do like?

[Thunder77]

I like a very sharp serrated blade such as bread knife for slashing. If I am getting fancy, use a handheld razor blade.

[gcdmd]

Has anyone tried an old fashioned straight razor?

[Thunder77]

After a couple of Forkish failures, I decided to go back to basics with a standard boule. I must say I am pleased with how this came out

[Potkettleblack]

On the second one, I've read that a lot of folks have trouble with Forkish's timing on the pure levain breads (Overnight Country White, OC Brown, and Pain au Bacon), with them overshooting on the bulk ferment or the proof... I had some fear over going too far on ferment or proof with OCB, but they came out good. Some larger holes, but no mouseholes.

[scottranda]

Thunder77 Potkettleblack interesting comments. I fail way way way too often (still tasty). How aggressive are you folding? Maybe I’m not aggressive enough. Mine frequently go flat.

[RonB]

Great lookin' boule.

[Potkettleblack]

I do the higher number of recommended folds, but generally in the first hour or two. On the loaves above, he said 3-4, with the last one being kind of whenever, so I did 3 in the first hour, let it relax for 2 while I watched some TV, and gave it the last one.

I follow the schedule pretty tightly. As to aggression with folds, I pull until I feel tension, then fold. Doing three in three weeks has given me better feel for this, and the loaves have been tighter. These loaves were pretty tight after shaping, I think, and they kinda exploded every seam.

My starter is named King Arthur, as, after failing miserably with Forkish's starter from scratch, I just bought a starter kit from KA. As discussed somewhere WAAY back in the thread, King gets 1/4 c of white flour, 2 TBS of whole rye or whole wheat, and 1/4c of water (maybe a bit extra to fix the texture). Gets that once a week, overnight on the counter, then into the mini-fridge. He's survived 3 weeks without feeding in the minifridge, which holds about 45-55*F. When it's time for bread, he gets a double or triple feeding, so as to have enough to make the loaves. I do not feed on Forkish's method, as it blows a ton of flour for occasional baking. King Arthur is kind of godly... resilient, flavorful, provides good lift and nice flavor.

I miss BH, because he had good answers for questions like, "mine go flat." I haven't had issues, and with pure levain, my crusts are getting thinner, which has been what I've wanted to achieve. I suspect BH would have a good answer for that, though.

[Willy]

When I make Forkish loaves--mainly FB #2, I don't follow his kneading/folding technique; instead, I knead in the KA and do the stretch and folds and the tension pulls ala the Stella Culinary method. This ends up with a decent dome shape after baking, though I suspect that higher hydration loaves just don't have the structural integrity to "dome" the way a lower hydration formula does.

[Thunder77]

Willy, I think you are correct. Forkish recipes call for AP flour, but I think they work out better with bread flour, at least for me. I think it has more ability to hold a shape.

[Willy]

Thunder77 Yeah, I always use BF in all my loaves, plus whatever supplements like rye might be called for.

[MBMorgan]

I bake at a fairly high altitude (6300 ft.) and always use BF since it's supposed to help with that. So far, so good ...

[Potkettleblack]

the things we do for bread.



Using Joule to hold 88*F for Warm Spot White from Forkish, the last bread in the book.

[EdF]

I don't think I'd have ever thought of that move!

[Potkettleblack]

Checked what temp the oven would hold with just the light on, and it was too low. Explored this previously, but SVS Demi and Nomiku won’t hold that low.

[Potkettleblack]

Here's the finished bread. This was the second loaf, and a bit smaller, so might've been a bit over proofed. This was sliced an hour or so after it came out of the oven, so I don't know that the flavor was fully developed. Really light and airy, but moist crumb. Really crisp crust. Nice ears, good rise, nice shape for sandwiches, which is the goal, given the amount of leftovers I have. Flavor is not sour in the least.

I was able to find some brown rice flour, which I used to dust the bannetons, which, as suggested, made them practically non-stick. A much lighter presence on the finished loaf than using white flour.

This is my fourth bread in 5 weeks, far and away the most technically difficult, given the needs of the levain. As discussed in the FWSY blog by the guy who cooked all the breads in the book, you really get a feel for how different composition of the starter and different treatment changes the final product. This is the same hydration as the overnight brown I had above, and the bacon bread... it's even the same flour composition as the bacon bread, but a very different bread, based on the schedule and the starter. Mordred is gone, because I didn't feel like maintaining a warm spot levain all winter, but maybe he will return.

[Thunder77]

That looks just about perfect. 👍 BTW, I have been using white rice flour in my banneton. That works well, and is also less intrusive than regular flour.

[Potkettleblack]

Yeah, was looking for white rice but only found brown. Figured it would work for non-stick without being flavor disruptive.

[Mr. Bones]

Beautiful loaf, thanks fer sharin'!

[RonB]

That does look very good.