Susan's blog

High-Gluten Spring Wheat flour is what I use for all my sourdoughs, Shannon, and using it tends to make a stretchier, chewier loaf, which is what I want.  H-G flour is a step higher in protein than bread flour.  Don't know if you are making sourdough, but if so, here's a simple recipe:

50g starter

210g water

300g High-Gluten Flour

6g salt

Mix the starter and water in a small plastic tub,* add flour and salt, mix until rough.  Cover and let sit 10 minutes.   Using a wooden spoon, fold the dough from bottom to top around the tub.  Cover and let rise until the dough has doubled in volume.  At this point, turn it out on your oil-sprayed counter and envelope-fold it.  Fold it two or three times, letting it relax between foldings.  Each time you fold, it will become easier to handle and will hold its shape better.  Now, shape the dough and leave it to rise either on the counter with parchment underneath or in a banneton (or linen-lined colander or bowl).  When you can poke your floured finger into the dough and the imprint stays, it's time to bake.  Pre-heat the oven to 500F, then turn it down to 460F after you load the bread.  There are several options for steaming bread.  My fav is covering the bread for the first 20 minutes with a stainless-steel bowl.  Total time in the oven will be about 30 minutes.  Let the bread brown as much as it can without burning.  Don't cut the loaf until it has cooled. 

*If you use a small tub (such as a 2-lb yogurt tub, which is what I often use), the dough will half-fill it, and when it doubles, the tub will be full!  Cool, eh?

Remember to have fun.

Susan from San Diego

The below loaf has 25g rye flour substituted for 25g of the HG flour:

Here's an example of another loaf using the same basic recipe as the ones below.  In this case, I used all white flour and added barely sprouted wheat berries which I ran through a mini food processor.  Turns out it won't be a favorite of mine, but that's okay.  I tried it.  (My fav, so far, is white flour with 25g rye or whole wheat and 2-3 Tablespoons of dry steel-cut oats thrown into the mix.)

It doesn't take much to make a decent loaf of bread.  I own a KA mixer but never use it for my bread, I just threw away my baking stone, and I let the bread do its own steaming by covering it with a bowl or roaster lid for the first 18-20 minutes of baking. 

My usual implements are a scale, a cheap round plastic tub with lid, an old bamboo chopstick, a bench knife, a plastic colander with a linen cloth laid inside (sprinkled with flour and a bit of rice flour), parchment (used for more than one loaf), a heavy 14" pizza pan, a large ovenproof bowl, and my oven.  Many of these items came from thrift stores.  I feel fortunate to have a Miele oven, as it really holds the heat.

The first and most important item is your starter.  If it's not fresh and active, then you've begun with a huge handicap.  The rest is practice, practice, practice.  Try not to get frustrated when a certain recipe doesn't work for you. Your temperature, humidity, starter, flour and water are all different from everyone else's, so just relax and go with the flow.  Make the same recipe over and over until you get it just like you want it.  Then try different flours.  I use mostly high-gluten flour because that's what I like.  You might like All Purpose, Bread flour, or Whole Wheat or Rye better.  But each of these will require changes in water and/or handling, so be prepared.

If you've hung around this long, thanks, and I hope my words help you.

Susan

75g firm starter

210g water

25g ww or rye flour

275g high-gluten flour (if using bread flour or AP, adjust the water)

1/2 ounce dried onions (soaked in hot water for a couple of hours, then drained; use the water drained from the onions as part of the water in the dough)

3 tbsp poppy seeds

6g salt

Mix starter and water, add the rest and mix, wait 20 minutes, *fold in the bowl, wait 10 minutes (3 or 4 times from *), cover and refrigerate overnight.  Remove from fridge, flatten on lightly oiled counter, *envelope fold, cover with bowl, wait until dough relaxes, maybe 15 minutes (3 or 4 times from *), let rise until when snipped with scissors you see a holey network (thanks, Dan Lepard, for that hint).  BTW, the last two times the dough is folded, round it up well.  Turn the dough ball to create surface tension, let rest for 5 minutes to seal the bottom, then overturn into a banneton.  Let rise for ~3 hours at room temp.  Turn out onto parchment, slash, spray with water, load into 500F oven, cover, bake for 20 minutes, remove cover, lower heat to 460F and bake for 10 minutes.  Turn off oven and leave for 5 minutes.

If you'll notice, this recipe is basically the same as the Faux Deli Rye, I just twisted things a bit here and there.

Susan's "Faux Deli Rye"

75g firm starter

210g water

25g rye flour

275g high-gluten flour (if using bread flour or AP, adjust the water)

1 tsp caraway seed powder (optional, but good)

1 tbsp caraway seeds

6g salt

Mix starter and water, add the rest and mix, wait 20 minutes, *fold in the bowl, wait 10 minutes (3 or 4 times from *), cover and refrigerate overnight.  Remove from fridge, flatten on counter, *envelope fold, cover with bowl, wait until dough relaxes, maybe 15 minutes (3 or 4 times from *), let rise until when snipped with scissors you see a holey network (thanks, Dan Lepard, for that hint).  BTW, the last two times the dough is folded, round it up well.  Turn the dough ball to create surface tension, let rest for 5 minutes to seal the bottom, then overturn into a banneton.  Let rise for ~3 hours at room temp.  Triple Slash, spray with water, load into 500F oven, cover, bake for 20 minutes, remove cover, lower heat to 460F and bake for 10 minutes.  Turn off oven and leave for 5 minutes. Remove to a rack and rub butter over the loaf for a leathery crust rather than a crisp one. 

As everyone's dough is different, use your judgment concerning timing.  My room temperature is around 70F today.

Susan from San Diego

I kept losing this recipe, so am placing it here in my blog!

My recipe and methods are most decidedly less than scientific, and are the result of about 1.5 years of fumbling and many bricks. I would welcome any suggestions.

Starter

1 T expanded starter, which was saved from the sponge

15 g filtered water (1 T)

25 g flour (2-3 T)

Mix water into starter, then mix in flour. Cover with plastic and leave at room temp until it is puffy and you see bubbles under the surface (for me, 4-6 hours, depending on room temp). Store in fridge and use as is within 3 days. For longer storage, refresh it before using (throw away all but 1 T, then add 1 T water and 2-3 T flour, etc.)

Sponge

240 g filtered water (1 cup + 1 T)

223 g flour (1.5 cups) (I'm currently using GM Harvest King here)

All starter

Mix water into starter, then add flour, stirring until well mixed; cover with plastic and let sit at room temp overnight. When ready, it will be expanded and bubbly with just a hint of a depression in the middle. (btw, I am using a 1.5L bowl, and the sponge fills up the bowl to within an inch of the top when the sponge is ready.)

Dough

60 g water (1/4 cup) This amount is variable (weather, etc.)

14 g (1 T) olive oil

All sponge, except for 1 T saved for the next starter

222 g bread flour (1.5 cups) (currently using GM Better for Bread here)

62 g (1/2 cup) white whole wheat flour (KA)

1.5 t salt

I use my Zojirushi ABM to mix and knead the dough, but have made up a custom program of 6 minutes mix/knead, 20 minutes rest, and another 6 minutes of kneading. Everything goes into the pan but the salt, which is added during the last couple of minutes.

Empty the dough into a straight-sided, lightly oil-sprayed canister to ferment for about 3 hours at room temp (lower 70's F). Stretch and fold 3 times over the first 90 minutes of this fermentation (Many thanks to MountainDog!). When the dough is fully risen, turn it onto a Silpat and cut in half with a bench knife. Gently pull each half into a rounded shape, turn over, cover with plastic and rest for 15-20 minutes.

Gently rotate each round a few times to tighten it, then invert each round into a well-floured cloth laid inside a small bowl (add some seeds in the bottom of the bowl if you like). (The bowls I use are about 7 inches in diameter at the top.) Seal the seam and tightly cover the top of the dough with plastic wrap. Put the bowls in a warm spot, upper 70's F, for 1.5-2 hours. (I use my microwave, OFF of course, and put a mug of hot water in with the bowls.)

Preheat oven to 450 F. Remove plastic wrap from one round and gently re-seal the seam if necessary. Invert onto a semolina-dusted peel, slash the top, and slide it into the oven. (My oven is a Miele, and it came with several trays, but I would think a large cookie sheet would do the trick. I stopped using a stone, as it didn't seem to make a difference in oven spring.) As soon as the round is in the oven, overturn a 4L heat-proof Pyrex bowl on top of it. The bowl has been quickly rinsed with hot water before putting it in the oven. I assume one could use a SS bowl, but you'd miss seeing the rise, and that's half the fun!

Leave the bowl on top of the bread until it just starts to brown (16-18 minutes), then very carefully remove the bowl by sliding a spatula under the edge (there will be a small release of steam here, so let it happen and stay out of its way) then I slide my other hand, well-covered with an oven mitt, under the edge of the bowl and lift it up and over the bread. Make sure you already have a safe place to set the extremely hot bowl when you take it out of the oven. I would not put it on a cold counter; a couple of hot pads are what I use. Please be careful.

Bake the bread another 6-8 minutes until it is dark brown. The darker it is (without burning, of course) the more taste it will have.

Bake the other loaf. I bake 2 little boules two or three times a week. And one loaf of each baking usually ends up with one grateful neighbor or another...

Well, now you know my sourdough odyssey. Remember that it's just mine; yours may take a different path. If you have any questions, please ask. I now weigh everything (again, thanks to the folks on this site), but have put in measurements for those who do not weigh. The flour was scooped and leveled.

Susan in San Diego (so you'll know I am at sea level!)

I recently took a step back to 2006, and resurrected a starter I dried and tucked away in the pantry.

The starter I had been using put its feet up in the air and died. Every bit of flour I put in it was consumed almost immediately and it turned to glop. Doggedly, I kept feeding and using the starter, hoping for the miracle of a beautiful loaf again. Each time I was disgusted and embarrassed at what came out of the oven: bread that was almost flat, and totally lifeless.

So finally, I pulled out the 2006 starter and brought it back to life, and am happy to say that I'm back on track.

Here are the first loaves to come out of my oven since using the new/old starter. I feel happy and renewed. It's amazing how wonderful a little bread success can make me feel. Hurrah for sourdough!

Maybe next time I hit a starter bump I'll have enough sense to call a retreat instead of being so hardheaded.

Here's my first loaf using Bay State Milling's Bouncer. (Premium high gluten flour made from the finest high-protein spring wheat.) Smiling nicely, isn't it?

Dough made with this flour felt softer than with the GM All Trumps I've been using, and less stretchy. I was worried that my usual 70% hydration would be too high, but I don't think it was. The crust seemed a bit thicker and, boy, did it sing when it came out of the oven!

There was no real reason to switch from All Trumps to Bouncer; I just wanted to try out different flours.

Thanks for looking!

Today I baked the sourdough bread I've been looking for ever since starting this odyssey. It has a crispy crust and a stretchy, holey crumb. And it's easy. As I told a couple of friends earlier, "...it's reproducible, if the weather stays exactly how it is today."

I'm not suggesting that this could be anyone else's ultimate sourdough, but it sure is mine, at least for right now. Thanks to all who have helped me over the past year or so, even unwittingly. It continues to be great fun. The recipe is below.

Susan's Ultimate Sourdough

Starter is made the way Peter Reinhart suggested to us in class: 1:3:4 (starter:water:flour)

A single small boule, made by hand:

12g starter

175g water

25g whole wheat flour

225g hi-gluten flour (All Trumps, to be exact)

5g salt (I use Kosher)

Mix starter and water, mix in flour. Rest a few minutes, then re-mix. Dump into a greased bowl, let rise until doubled, about 8 hours. Turn the very soft dough onto your counter and pat it out, then sprinkle salt over the top. Roll it up, then gently knead a few times to distribute the salt. Let relax. Do the following until the dough is hard to fold: round up, let the dough relax, stretch and fold. Round up, let relax, shape, and put it in a banneton for proofing 3-4 hours in a warm spot.

The oven was preheated for 30 minutes at 500F, and reduced to 450F after I put the loaf in. It was baked on a tray, covered, for 18 minutes. The cover was then removed and the loaf baked until dark brown, about another 8 minutes.

Thanks, Norm, for this recipe. Boy, are these good! This is the first recipe in a long time that tempted me to stray from straight sourdough!

I think I should have used convection for the last half of baking. And I should probably smush them down more and give them a bit more room on the sides next time.

You can see that I started out with 15 two-ounce rolls and now have only eight left, and they just came out of the oven! Mmmmmmm.

Susan from San Diego

Half-baked Onion Rolls

Norm's Onion Rolls

Here's the link to Norm's recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6245/another-one-norm-onion-rolls#comment-31799

One-day, 100g starter

Sponge-based, 50g starter

There were a couple of differences:
The One-day dough subbed 40g WWW, and added 1/8-cup sesame seeds
The Sponge-based dough added 1T oil.

Amazing difference, huh?