Susan's Simple Small Sourdough Challenge

A litle disapointing but also rewarding. The dough was super sticky, almost like a No-Knead dough, and it spread rather than rise. The slashes filled in before I got it in the oven. It was very rainy when I started this on Sat. so maybe I should have cut back on the water. I made the firm starter out of my regular 82% hydration stock and it seemed active enough after it’s overnight rest. Perhaps the KA bread flour needs less water. I did figure out I could use the regular whole wheat instead of white. That was a relief. I liked the non-sour flavor and the crumb was nice. I’ll try it again in a couple weeks.
Love the chop stick twist!

Here’s hoping for a better bake next time.
Bake on!

Dosi

I have been found guilty by a trial of my peer's (Eric) to have killed my starter while under the influnces of flu . I have been sentenced to start over. This time I did it with orange juice, and since I had it on hand pure apple. It was not in the recommended, but since it was there, I'll have two to compare maybe.

Audra

   It was funny, I had felt so bad for days and all of a sudden I just started feeling better. Hubby was in the kitchen getting dinner for the kids (should have let him go on with that thinking back) I ate, and started complaining about how the house was a wreck, and giving out orders. The whole family cheered "she's back!" LOL! They had it easy for several days. I didn't care if the world turned must less if the house got cleaned! Now the house smells of Lysol spray to high heaven and all is well.

   So I have attacked the starter with a new vengance, and have a batch of gothicgirls tortillas resting. Thankfully I am back on my game! Do ya'll think the apple starter will be OK? It was Simply Apple brand juice, and it was in the fridge. We'll see.  Debra Wink's formula stated pineapple, orange, or cider; no just plain apple. Time will tell.

Audra

greetings all, here is my attempt. i waited for the dough to double, massaged it a little bit, and then placed the dough in the fridge. the next morning, i found that the dough doubled. took the dough out, divided and then loosely shaped dough into 2 boules. after a 20min rest, reshaped and let rest for another 40 mins. i then baked at 460 with steam for ~30mins.

I'm calculating 70% overall (includes water in sourdough starter). Did I do the math right?

I'm lazy and don't want to convert my 100% sourdough starter to Susan's firm starter (1:3:4 - seed starter:water:flour).

Thanks.

   just get here when you can. FINALLY. With the 2nd round starter, I finally get to post pics. The roughness on top is where it stuck, to me, the collander, the world!!! I abused it and it ended up staying out 3 hours instead of the recomended 2 so it was running out of gas, but did not turn out bad, even at that. Thanks Susan for a mighty forgiving recipe!

As usual, I'm late to the party.

On Oct 1st, I promised to take on Eric's challenge - bake bread following Susan's recipe and methods for a simple sourdough boule.

Finally, I got around to doing it. I've posted my results (discussion and lots of photos) in TFL's Artisan Baking section at www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14366/susan039s-simple-sourdough-challenge

Bottom line? Great bread! - thanks Susan. Great idea! - thanks Eric.

from BBA. It looked great for a few weeks but is not too bubbly now. Smells fine. I feed every 3-5 days 1:2:2 (S:F:W) How can I tell if it's in good shape? Also, how do I make a firm starter from this liquid one? Is it the same as PR's second step of his basic SD recipe?

Thanks,

BH

Second trial of Susan's sourdough, this time with 10% rye (first trial was 10% hard red spring wheat). Posted to TFL's Artisan Baking section at www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14417/susan039s-simple-sourdough-challenge-take-two

Some more discussion, photos from the bake.

This bread is definitely a winner.

To start, this is my first post in quite some time and I owe an apology to Debra Wink for failing to perform a favor for her some time back. Long story short: I had a bicep tendon rupture on me, followed by several months of rehab, then had to move and close on a house, then had a rotator-cuff tear, followed by surgery and another 4 months of rehab and I still have several months to go before being completely healed. So...bread endeavors were neglected for quite some time.

I have been intrigued reading Susan's Simple recipe (simple is good right now) and recently took pains (yes, it did hurt physically) to revive all 5 of my starters to join in Eric's challenge.

Never content to leave well enough alone, and inspired by a TFL post mentioning Rosemary Olive Oil sourdough, I tweaked the ingredients to add 3.5 grams of Dried Rosemary soaked overnight in 14 grams of EV Olive Oil per recipe loaf. I'll try fresh Rosemary sometime soon. I also substituted regular Whole Wheat for the White Whole Wheat in the first bake. The only other deviation from Susan's recipe is that I folded 3 times at intervals of 40 minutes.

Below are pictures from 2 different bakes, the first doubling the amount and the second quadrupling. 

My neighbors and clients who usually get to share in my bakes are raving that this might be the best tasting outcome I have had. I think it's just because they haven't had any good bread in awhile. Several have like it so much they want to pay me to bake loaves for Christmas gifts.

I am amazed at the oven-spring I get from Susan's recipe and how forgiving it is. I experimented with the second bake by proofing 2 of the shaped loaves for an hour before putting them in the fridge and then letting them warm up for 3 hours instead of 2. That didn't seem to effect any differences that I could see or taste. I also went almost 16 hours before baking. I like the fact I can leave them in the fridge to bake at my convenience.

The crumb on all loaves came out very light and airy and had a very nice glossy look. The crust really blistered and had immense flavor. I grilled toasted ham & cheese sandwiches the day after that benefited greatly from this bread.

I think Susan has created my "daily" bread recipe. Thanks Susan!

First bake:

*************************************

Second bake:

...but where is your entry?

Took me awhile to get back to this loaf. It's much better this time:

I got better oven spring and nice blisters. I still need practice with the slashes. The crumb was more open but had that great stretchy feel and a wonderful mild taste.

I used KA bread flour both times. I need to try it with high gluten flour. I think this is the big difference. I did 4 sets of 4 (top/bottom, side to side, repeat, repeat, repeat) stretch and folds over 90 min. Susan had mentioned the possibility of needing to increase the s&fs and maybe the amount of water if using regular bread four. I left the water amount the same. It stayed in the frig for 15 hrs. before I got back to it then 2 hrs out and proceed with the shape and bake. I really like this mid sized, "fit-the-time-around-other-things" loaf. Just to keep my starter active when I really don't want another full sized boule but could do with a little sample.

Once again thanks for this challenge. Now I'm on to running down some high gluten flour. I'd really like to find some locally rather than having to order it. I think I'll post an inquiry.

Bake on...

Dosi

After much suggesting from some of you folks here, I finally made one of these loaves, and goodness it was an awesome thing to do.

I started with my starter [rimshot] and left it out for a few days, feeding it every other eight hours of so.  Then yesterday, after I thought things were good, I made the dough.  Since I had just a cheap Wal-Mart diet scale, I did rough measurements, but it was still alright.  I mixed lightly with a small spoon and left it alone.  S&F according to directions, but when it came to the linen-lined collander, I freaked.  I didn't know where I could find either.  So I swerved a bit and went with a heavily dusted papertowel in a 1-quart mixing bowl.  Put the dough in there, covered with plastic wrap and chucked it in the fridge.

Eight am I put it back outside and nine am I gently plopped it on a floured cookie sheet.  Thankfully the towel didn't stick at all.  I lightly shaped it, placed a sheet of wrap on it and let it stay for an hour.  At ten am, I removed the wrap and placed it in the oven.  I didn't do any misting or stuff like that.  I just covered it with a metal mixing bowl and baked according to the recipe.  Took it out when it was done [though I did leave it for an extra five or so minutes] and I practically ooohed over it.

A nice small loaf.  You can see where I tried slicing it open [looks like I need a better razor :\ ]  Sprung quickly during the first 20 minutes; it was rather pancake-shaped when I placed it in.  After waiting for an hour or so, I cut it open.

A very nice loaf of bread, if I do say so myself.  My mom was in awe over how it was.  And the taste!  VERY good; the sour was more of an mild end note than anything, it just finished the entire bread.  Also, VERY chewy and moist, not at all doughy.  I suggested this would do awesome as a soup bread, and Mom agreed.

Now she's wanting me to make another one! :D

Did i miss it in this discussion. Would love to try this small loaf and experiment with a firm starter  (first timer). I have a 100% starter sitting in the fridge...how do i get it to the firm stage ...is there a link to that explanation? Thanks!

Becky