Sjadad's blog

Today’s bake was 50% whole grain (spelt, rye, & whole wheat) and 85% hydration. I was very pleased with the oven spring - in fact it was so strong it blew out my double score (likely some operator error there too). Considering the high percentage of whole grain I was quite happy with the openness of the crumb, although it’s a bit uneven. Probably a result of my limited shaping skills. This is one of the most delicious loaves ever!

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My first attempt at this formula. Overall I’m fairly pleased with the result, although I expected a bit more oven spring, a more pronounced ear, and a more open crumb. Perhaps the relatively high percentage of rye is the culprit or, more likely, “operator error.” It’s a very sticky dough and I may have shaped it a bit too tightly fearing it would ooze when unmolded from the banneton. It held its shape quite well when unmolded.

A lovely aroma, and I’m sure it will go well with the frittata we’re having for dinner.  

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This is my most successful attempt at Ken Forkish’s Overnight Country Brown (30% WW, 70% KA AP). I followed his formula and directions, with only a few deviations. 

• I shaped into a batard, and placed seam side up in the banneton, because I like to score my loaves
• After shaping, I immediately covered and placed in the refrigerator for 4 hours because I could tell from the bulk fermentation activity that room temperature would have resulted in an over proofing situation

The crust is thin and nicely crisp, and I’m quite pleased with the crumb, which is very creamy. 

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Inspired by Benny and others, I tried my hand at decorative scoring - nothing elaborate, just a wheat stalk. Here are the loaf details:

• 50% Bread Flour
• 50% Whole Wheat Flour
• 85% Hydration
• 2% salt
• 16% Levain (100% hydration)

The levain build was about 4 hours (@76F). Autolyse flour and water for 2 hours. Mix levain with autolysed dough, and slap & fold for about 5 minutes, then fold in the salt and bulk ferment @ 76F for about 4 hours, giving 5 sets of stretch & folds at 30 minute intervals. Divide, pre-shape, rest 20 minutes, then final shape and refrigerate 12 hours. Score and bake straight from the fridge at 500F 20 minutes, then without steam 10 minutes more at 500F. Lower oven to 450F and bake another 20 minutes or so until you like the color. 

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After taking too long a break from baking sourdough bread, I made a new starter and got right back into it. Here’s a loaf that’s 50% whole wheat and 50% bread flour. 85% hydration. I was very pleased with the crumb.

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I've been making pizza for years with very good results. A few years ago I got a wood fired oven, anticipating to up my pizza game to a point where my pizzas would be better than anything I could get outside of Naples, Italy. Until I followed a tip from Ken Forkish's book THE ELEMENTS OF PIZZA, great WFO pizza proved to be elusive. 

The tip?  The hydration of dough destined for a WFO needs to be lower than that for a home oven. Since the pizza spends far less time in a WFO than a home oven (60-90 seconds vs. ~8 minutes), using high hydration prevents the crust from baking to the right doneness before the toppings burn. 

Being an avid home bread baker and knowing higher hydration generally yields better loaves I had always assumed the same was true for pizza. Forkish educated me. Making pizza dough with 60% hydration (rather than to 70%+ I use for bread) yielded the WFO pizza of my dreams. Here is a pie I made last night, topped with puréed San Marzanos, fresh ricotta, sautéed spinach, nutmeg, and capicola. 

Ready for The New Year.  L'Shana Tova!

It's been quite some time since I baked a pure levain from FWSY so yesterday I decided to make the Overnight Country Brown.  Right off the bat I had a couple of problems.  First, I use equal weights of white and whole wheat flours in my starter and keep it at 100% hydration while Forkish uses an 80% hydration starter.  This was not a huge obstacle since I'm pretty good at math so I could do a conversion.  My second problem was that I didn't have enough whole wheat flour to make the levain per Forkish's formula and still have enough to make the final dough, and I didn't feel motivated enough to go to the store.

Since the final dough requires only 216g of levain, I scaled down the formula while simultaneously adjusting so the final levain hydration was 80%:

Active Levain @ 100% hydration     22g

White Flour                                       82g

Whole Wheat Flour                           27g

Water                                                85g

Otherwise I followed the directions without deviation.  As an experient I used two different sizes of dutch ovens.  One was a standard Lodge cast iron dutch oven and the other was a smaller 4-quart Emile Henry.  My experience was exactly what Forkish said it would be (p. 47), which is the loaf in the smaller D.O. baked up higher with a more pronounced split.  You can see the two loaves side-by-side in a photo below.

This is a delicious bread with a very moist, creamy crumb and a wonderful substantial crust.  I won't wait so long before making it again. 

The loaf baked in the 4-quart D.O. is on the right. 

I based this loaf on Ken Forkish's 50% whole wheat bread with biga. Instead of 50% whole wheat I made this 40% whole wheat and 10% rye. The hydration is 80%. 

I am very pleased with the result. A nice open crumb and light texture considering the high percentage of whole grain flours. I also love the deep color of the crust, which is shatteringly crisp.