Sourdough delights

First 'real' sourdough breads with my recently invigorated King Arthur starter.

Same dough different shapes thats all.

This boule was done in the la cloche clay bakerThe sandwich loaf in a silicon pan, used another as a lid

Some baking over the last couple of weeks.


Class fermentations, see the no-salt dough has already overtaken the salted normal dough even though it was mixed after.
Class breads
Teff Injera fermenting [innoculated with spit [good source of amylase and Lactobacilli]]Dosa batter fermenting nicely [Rice and black gram beans]Bread made with 33% wholegrain spelt four 67% hi-gluten white, made as a overnight sponge 100% with brewer's yeast from the bottom of a keg. Ate bread and drank beer made with the same yeast. Interesting experience!

Really nice chewy crumb with big holes
My first Debra Wink/Peter Reinhart "pineapple juice solution" sourdough bubbling fiercly at the end of phase 1

The inevitable aftermath

straight-dough with waxy wholewheat [25%]

Baker's corner in the lab

The ovenmy new library


Straight dough method

75% "Titan" hi-gluten HRS
25% stone-ground either waxy HRW or normal HWS
72% water @ 40 deg C
1% instant yeast
2% salt
150 g sourdough

2 kg doughs [plus 1440 water] 8 mins in Hobart 20 quart mixer with dough hook.
45/45/45 bulk fermentation with folds at each step
45 min final proof in banettons
bake in steam 500 F down to 425 F during baking
[6 min of fan off and steam pan, rest with "pulsed air"]

Test bread, nowhere near as good as a poolish bread, nor even close to the best, the overnight pain a l'ancienne method, but still very nice.

A nice bold dough ready to go [25% waxy wheat]
same.. in the oven
waxy wheat blend bread finished
waxy wheat blend bread crumb structure

Crust starting to crack
Controls with 25% "normal starch" stone-ground Oregon HWS

"Pain a l'pugliese"

Made another round of pain a l'ancienne, this time shaped as "pugliese" including 2 folds of the doughs starting from after it first doubled and warmed up after the overnight in the refigerator. The dough, even at 80% water, came together to be moderately handleable especially after the second round of folding.

"Pain a l'pugliese"
Made "quick" 2 hr fermentation using the same flour, yeast, and salt at 70% water to show to the class the striking flavor differences that can be generated simply altering the fermentation protocol with plain old commercial yeast. The boules though hit the spot big time with the crust, which crackled and cracked beautifully when cooling. I got the steam better in the oven: turned off the fan fort he first 6 minutes, started the oven at 500 F and let it drift down to 425 F, added lava rocks to my cast iron griddle plate for more surface area to volume ratio [read the idea in one of my books; not mine] to generate more-more-more steam, as well as spraying the walls every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Seemed to do the trick.


Had to wait a few minutes for the oven to heat back up, the conventional straight dough boules got a bit excitable... but they still worked
Boules cooling before the cracking
Boule crumb
Anyway; the class were able to detect differences in flavor, texture, crumb structure, and crust [color, flavor, texture] although not all preferred the pain a l'ancienne batards.

Poolish boules

Upper: poolish after 18 hours, bubbly with creases
Below: after mixing
Below: after first folding
Below: after 2nd folding
bench resting after preliminary shaping

Into the bannetons for proofing [all RT]
The finished products: the crumb was yellowish and chewy. Crust not quite as crisp as I'd like but thin and flavourful. Interior has big holes and lots of character

Did it by the book as much as possible
My version

Pain a l'ancienne

Pain a l'ancienne; Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" version.

Made a chilled dough with 80% water, retarded overnight, took about 4 hours to double today at RT, then "shaped" the very wet doughs and followed the recipe and gave no real final proof -- not my instincts to do this -- and the surface did look under-proofed. I think next time I will make the ciabatta variant and give the "shaped" doughs a further bench rise before baking.

Other than that; spectacular; chewy yellowish kinda sweetish crumb [not like added sugar or "evaporated cane juice" (mostly sugar) sweetened] but very subtle, and a crispy flavorful crust, just the ants pants and really easy to make [I'm sure it's much easier the second time around]. Could have baked a touch cooler too.

Next day -- Barley batards

Similar recipe -- plus 2% extra dry gluten -- double bulk ferment; may have been too much as there wasn't much lift in the proofer. Still got some additional oven-spring today. Tried the "new" steam arrangement; ala Brother Juniper's, bought a garden sprayer an spritzed the doughs on entering the oven and at 2, 4, 6, and 16 minutes of baking.

These were smaller loaves, scaled at 700 g and baked 20 min @ 200 deg C and 10 min at 150 deg C. They look and smell great, can't wait for them to cool. The dough is weird to handle, not very gassy and somewhat plastic; resting seems to give no advantage in moulding. I have great trouble keeping the seam together, even if I wet it first before sealing it. Still, the oven spring filled most of the gaps :-)


OK -- cool enough to cut and eat -- scrumptious, crispy thin crust, great flavor, although there is a hint of bitterness with this much whole-grain barley -- very slight -- just the call with blackberry preserve. Nice crumb structure shows there was some oven lift.