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UPDATE: I’m sure some of you are wondering what ever happened to me and my sourdough trials. Did I ever get it right? Well....When last we left our hero, she was making saucer-shaped breads.
I made breads through July (once, sometimes twice a week) and, between an over proofed loaf or two and one under proofed, II learned a lot. I learned that a 68% hydration bread is easier to handle than a 78%, yet still wet enough to create a moist and tasty crumb. I learned that a 12-14 hour levain (1:8:8) made the night before tends to be better at fermenting the dough than a 6 hour (1:2:2). I learned it’s easier (and equally effective “fermentation wise”) to dissolve the levain in the water, add the flour and autolyse rather than mix water/flour, autolyse, then add in the levain. I learned that I needed to use the mixing in of the salt as a time to give the dough five good minutes of folding. It’s like warming the dough up for gluten production.
One of the best lessons I learned was to give the dough enough fermenting time. I had trouble doing this when it came to waiting for it to “double in size.” I either didn’t give it enough time, or I gave it or much time. But found it a lot easier to do if I just put more time in between stretch & folds. Like 45 minutes to an hour. Enough time to incorporate the gluten created by those turns. This finally transformed my usual, sticky-mess dough into one elastic, pillowy and hardly sticky at all. One that was a breeze to handle and shape.
But the most important thing I learned was by chance.
I decided to try this variation on stretch-and-folds that uses a covered casserole dish (See Chef Rachida’s Sourdough Bread video). I did my turns this way, and I liked it a lot...but my loaf still came out as saucer-shaped as all the others.
The one difference was that her recipe made for a very small loaf. Just big enough for a sandwich for two. I sliced it horizontally to make the sandwich and found a bit in the middle underdone. Not a lot, but enough to notice if the bread were sliced this way. Had I sliced it the usual way, it would have gone undetected. (Note, I did take the bread’s temp when it came out of the oven, it was 212–no hint of that underdone spot at the exact center of the loaf).
Which suddenly had me thinking...all this started back in May with my interest in cold oven bakes: the idea of cold oven bakes is that the heat intensives slowly, allowing the dough to rise high as possible before crusting over. If my loaves were squat...maybe they were crusting before the bread could fully rise? Maybe, in fact, most of my loaves had had this slight, underdoness in the center, hidden because of how they were sliced? Meaning the oven was too hot? The recipes I’d been using said to pre-heat to 500...but maybe I should go with recipes that said pre-heat to 450?
I went back to my original, beginner’s sourdough recipe from Perfect Loaf (at 68* hydration rather than the troublesome 78*) and used all I’d learned to make up a loaf. Then I baked it in a pre-heated pot and oven at...450*. The results (see photo below)
I will post pictures of the interior when I get around to slicing it. Here’s hoping that the inside looks as good as the outside. Either way...I think I made bread!
I made breads through July (once, sometimes twice a week) and, between an over proofed loaf or two and one under proofed, II learned a lot. I learned that a 68% hydration bread is easier to handle than a 78%, yet still wet enough to create a moist and tasty crumb. I learned that a 12-14 hour levain (1:8:8) made the night before tends to be better at fermenting the dough than a 6 hour (1:2:2). I learned it’s easier (and equally effective “fermentation wise”) to dissolve the levain in the water, add the flour and autolyse rather than mix water/flour, autolyse, then add in the levain. I learned that I needed to use the mixing in of the salt as a time to give the dough five good minutes of folding. It’s like warming the dough up for gluten production.
One of the best lessons I learned was to give the dough enough fermenting time. I had trouble doing this when it came to waiting for it to “double in size.” I either didn’t give it enough time, or I gave it or much time. But found it a lot easier to do if I just put more time in between stretch & folds. Like 45 minutes to an hour. Enough time to incorporate the gluten created by those turns. This finally transformed my usual, sticky-mess dough into one elastic, pillowy and hardly sticky at all. One that was a breeze to handle and shape.
But the most important thing I learned was by chance.
I decided to try this variation on stretch-and-folds that uses a covered casserole dish (See Chef Rachida’s Sourdough Bread video). I did my turns this way, and I liked it a lot...but my loaf still came out as saucer-shaped as all the others.
Which suddenly had me thinking...all this started back in May with my interest in cold oven bakes: the idea of cold oven bakes is that the heat intensives slowly, allowing the dough to rise high as possible before crusting over. If my loaves were squat...maybe they were crusting before the bread could fully rise? Maybe, in fact, most of my loaves had had this slight, underdoness in the center, hidden because of how they were sliced? Meaning the oven was too hot? The recipes I’d been using said to pre-heat to 500...but maybe I should go with recipes that said pre-heat to 450?
I went back to my original, beginner’s sourdough recipe from Perfect Loaf (at 68* hydration rather than the troublesome 78*) and used all I’d learned to make up a loaf. Then I baked it in a pre-heated pot and oven at...450*. The results (see photo below)
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