Kevin's Sourdough ::

[rwsaunders]

On VSalon, we share the good, the bad and the not so good, so I'll introduce this loaf. I hydrated this batch a little more than usual and I had a tough time getting it out of the banneton after proofing in the fridge overnight. This particular batch of starter might have been my most active batch as it continued to ferment throughout the process and I probably should have worked it more before the final proof. The good news is that the crust was awesome and the crumb is nice and light with a true "sour" tang to it...not much left as I gave my Mother 1/2 the loaf and we have been making some awesome sandwiches over the past few days.

[rwsaunders]

.....

[dgaddis]

It's Bring Your Dough to Work Day. AKA, I'm having fresh bread for breakfast tomorrow.

Pulled the starter out of the fridge last night and fed it. Mixed the flour and water this morning at 5am when the baby woke us up ready to eat, let it autolyse for ~2hrs, mixed in the starter and salt at 7am before heading out the door. 125g whole wheat (25%), 50g dark rye (10%) from the starte), the rest (325g) is bread flour. 75% (325g straight water + 50g from the starter) hydration.

More tomorrow!

[rwsaunders]

Mass production sourdough pasta...Von's style. I've asked a hostess twice now to take a sneak peak at their starter but on both occasions I've been denied. Next time, I'm going to go directly to a manager, even offer to sign an NDA and do my best begging. Perhaps I'll even apply for a kitchen job and be an insider. In any event, highly recommended sourdough pasta, breads and pizza here for sure.

[dgaddis]

Hmmm. I got a little caught up in 'stuff' last night and didn't shape my dough until ~8pm. So it had a 13hr bulk rise. Might be overproofed, never had one rise this much - it made it to the wrap covering the bowl! And of course I didn't oil the wrap or anything, so the dough stuck to it. Shaped it and put it in the banneton, will bake it later today. We'll see how it turns out.

For fun, two pics, same dough, same bowl, separated by 11.5 hours.

8:33am



and 8:02pm

[dgaddis]

Well, life happened, and we ended up taking a surprise weekend away from the house, so the dough I posted previously didn't get baked until this morning. So it had a 13hr rise at room temp, and spent 3 days in the fridge.

It was overproofed and didn't rise like it should, as expected since it got away from me during the bulk rise. But - the flavor!! This is my best tasting bread yet, that long retard in the fridge really turned up the tang.

[dgaddis]

SEMIRELATED.

Y'all know Tom Papa, the comedian? Super funny dude. A few examples below. Anyhow, he comes on the Joe Rogan podcast every so often (one uploaded today), and he's a baker, makes his own sourdough, grinds his own flour, visits well known bakeries while touring doing comedy. Well, he just filmed an 8 part TV show for the Food Network traveling to different cities and visiting bakeries. Should be fun!

[rwsaunders]

That's a pro looking boule, Dustin.

[dgaddis]

That's a pro looking boule, Dustin.

Eh, it could have had a lot more rise. It did taste good though, and had enough rise to not be bad, but, still lotsa room for improvement. When I see stuff like pictured below, I know I've got a lot to learn. Look at how much that score opened up, I've never had a loaf with that much oven spring.


Pic from this guy :: Trevor Wilson | Facebook I still need to read his book...I've got it, just haven't taken the time to read it yet.

[C.Dyer]

Eh, it could have had a lot more rise. It did taste good though, and had enough rise to not be bad, but, still lotsa room for improvement. When I see stuff like pictured below, I know I've got a lot to learn. Look at how much that score opened up, I've never had a loaf with that much oven spring.


Pic from this guy :: Trevor Wilson | Facebook I still need to read his book...I've got it, just haven't taken the time to read it yet.

I knew that was Trevor's bread from the burn rings on his dough counter before even seeing the picture caption. I've got the book, it's decent.

I look at a blog called The Perfect Loaf an awful lot for guidance and ideas. I highly suggest checking out that site, as well as his instagram account, which is @maurizio.

[rwsaunders]

Two small loaves in the final prove (proof) stage...

[rwsaunders]

The boss wanted to experiment with sourdough croutons and stuffing, so a little extra dough and here we go...round one of the production line. The (pre-)croutons are now in the freezer and I'll play with round two (seasoning and drying) this coming weekend. If you folks know of any good recipes, feel welcome to share.

[rwsaunders]

Maintaining a smaller sourdough starter - Flourish - King Arthur Flour

Nice piece from King Arthur Flour on starter maintenance in between baking sessions.

[mnoble485]

The boss wanted to experiment with sourdough croutons and stuffing, so a little extra dough and here we go...round one of the production line. The (pre-)croutons are now in the freezer and I'll play with round two (seasoning and drying) this coming weekend. If you folks know of any good recipes, feel welcome to share.

I think I could eat these like popcorn!

Mike

[dgaddis]

Gonna try my hand at some sandwhich bread. Got the starter out of the fridge last night, through most of it out, gave it a feed, then fed it again this morning. This morning's feed basically doubled the quantity. ~45mins after the feed it's already on the rise.

Starter is about 50/50 all-purpose and dark rye. I really like the flavor a little rye flour gives to bread.

[dgaddis]

Man, this thing is active today! Not even 2.5hrs after feeding it's doubled in size and ready to use. Time to go mix some dough.

[rwsaunders]

Twisted minds think alike, Dustin. I fed the beast and I'm working on some sourdough pizza crust, using discarded starter that I've been collecting over the week. I'll post the other pics in the pizza section.

[dgaddis]

So the sandwich bread turned out exactly as I hoped, except I simply misjudged how big a loaf to make. I used 400g of flour, should have done 600g for the size pan we have. The final loaf just isn't tall enough. But the flavor, texture, and crumb are all exactly what I was hoping for.

Will make again, this week!

[dgaddis]

Interesting stuff :: Sourdough Hands: How Bakers And Bread Are A Microbial Match : The Salt : NPR

[dgaddis]

Thanksgiving approaches. We're on the road all weekend visiting family, so no big cooks for me to do. I am making some bread to take to one get together though, making a full-size version of the sandwich loaf pictured previously, using 700g of flour vs 400g last time, and going to give it a long retard in the fridge. It'll go into the fridge tonight, and I'll bake it Thursday morning before we hit the road.

While I like a more traditional sourdough boule with the dark crust, most of family aren't wild about the harder crust, hence the softer crusted sandwhich style loaf. The long retard in the fridge should give it plenty of that sourdough tang though.