ifs201's blog

I was thrilled with the wild rice cranberry & nut bread I made last weekend so I decided to make another fruit/nut loaf. I didn't add rice this time, but I upped the percentages of whole grain. I briefly thought about adding cooked spelt, but then I forgot. 

I did a 10% starter inoculation, but I split this between YW (50g flour and 50g YW left out for 20 hours) and 100g of sourdough starter. My YW had a great apple smell. I used 2% salt and the hydration was 84%. The higher percentage of whole grains made the dough pretty easy to work with even at 84% hydration. I also did a 3+ hour autolyse which is longer than I have done in my recent bakes. I added 150g toasted walnuts, 200g raisins/cranberries, and 40g honey. 

This was another loaf inspired by Sarah Owens, but again I swapped out the add-ins and the flours used. I like Danni's idea of using cranberries and nuts so I used those instead of the herbs suggested by Sarah Owens. Delicious loaf! 

This was my take on the roasted butternut squash sourdough by Sarah Owens, but I decided to sub out the flours and make a savory version by replacing cherries with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. The hydration was only 55% before the squash and this was definitely the most disappointing crumb I have had in the last few months, but I hope it makes a decent sandwich bread. Maybe I should have developed the dough more in the mixing stage? 

I received requests for onion sourdough, so I decided to try a cornmeal porridge + onion loaf (similar to the porridge and shallot I made before, but different flours). I made two 900g loaves. The hydration including the porridge was very high, which made shaping difficult. I scored the loaves, but they ended up splitting open wherever they pleased! Yikes! 

• 12% starter inoculation
• 73% hydration (excluding porridge) 
• 2.2% salt
• 3 caramelized onions + one head roasted garlic
• I should have weighed the porridge, but it was 75g cornmeal cooked with 2.5 cups of liquid (milk and water) 

I made two 800g loaves with 10% starter inoculation and 78% hydration (excluding the carrots), and 2.2% salt. I used a mix of grains. I have never used 10% rye before and this is my first time using spelt. I mixed in 100g of shredded carrot, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp coriander, and 1 tbsp caraway seed (all toasted and ground except for the caraway which I left whole). I replaced most of the water with carrot juice which I made by blending 5 carrots and 250g of water together. I made some really ugly loaves this morning so here's to hoping they taste better than they look! 

Definitely not my most attractive bread! This bread was 85% hydration, with 35% T85, 10% rye (never done this before), and 55% bread flour. I added 150g of toasted chopped walnuts which was a lot for my 750g of dough to handle. I did a 12% starter inoculation, but also added 50g of yeast water to the dough. I'm not sure if adding the yeast water really made a difference or not. 

I see that the loaf split a bit on the side which I haven't had happen before. I don't know if this is because of a proofing issue or because the dough wasn't shaped/sealed tightly enough. This was my first time making a batard shaped loaf. 

After a not so successful chocolate loaf, I tried to copy the Full Proof baking recipe, but added chestnuts, doubled the chocolate chips, and replaced 30g of water with yeast water. I went the easy route and did just one dough, and not dough A&B as the recipe suggests.  

This loaf was 78% hydration, 90% bread flour, and 10% fresh ground wheat. 

I was inspired by Janet Cook's gorgeous bake back in 2013 and decided to give it a go. I used my Farmer Ground Flour high-extraction bread flour. The hydration of this loaf is 80%. They smell absolutely amazing! I didn't pre-soak the poppy seeds so the dough felt pretty dry for 80% hydration and I might increase the water slightly next time. I think the crumb is decent for 100% T85. 

Final dough:

• 228g 100% levain (3-stage build)
• 763g T85
• 588g water 
• 21g poppy seeds
• 9g lemon zest
• 35g honey
• 21g salt

I made one HUGE loaf with sauteed shallots and cornmeal porridge (50g of cornmeal and 235g of liquid). Excluding the cornmeal porridge, this loaf was 76% hydration, but with the cornmeal it was an extremely wet dough and a bit tough to handle, but the coil folds and lamination added a lot of strength. The hydration definitely pushed my limits!

Final dough:

• 280g of porridge (added during the mix)
• 10g salt
• 121g 100% starter
• 285g T85
• 22g rye
• 138g KA bread flour
• 324g water
• Approximately 100g of shallots (half raw, half sauteed added during lamination) 

I had a rough time scoring today, but the bread tastes great and the crumb is extremely moist. I'll definitely be making this one again. I did a 4 hour bulk (4x coil folds and one lamination) followed by 10 hours in the fridge. 

I had planned on making a yeast water bread with a YW I made using crab apples from my parents' yard. I ended up going away for the weekend, which meant my YW build of 100g YW and 160g bread flour got left on the counter for 26 hours. I didn't think I could use it to make bread at that point so I decided to make a hybrid babka recipe. I used 150g T85, 350g BF, 200g of my YW build, and about 40g of unfed sourdough starter along with 1/2 tsp of active yeast (also 95g sugar, 240g milk, and 2 eggs). I pretty much followed the usual recipe from SmittenKitchen otherwise. The recipe I used before my sourdough starter days uses 2 tsp of commercial yeast so this hybrid tried to reduce the commercial yeast by 75% and reduce the waste from my abandoned YW build.

I had no idea if it would work, but I think it looks good! Next time I want to try the full sourdough babka recipe from Artisan Bryan. For this bake I did an initial rise of 3 hours followed by shaping in the tin and an overnight rise in the fridge. I let the bread sit out at room temp before baking at 375 for about an hour. I put a simple syrup glaze on the top right out of the oven.