Sourdough

Word of the day: unseasonable.  I've been hearing that a lot lately.   What it means in practice is that after carefully checking the expected weather for the next few days, I decided it really was safe to bake in my WFO in March!    Last year my first bake was in July, but that was because I had to rebuild the oven first.    This year, the oven came through the winter more or less intact.    I pulled off the tarps and burned a bit of brush in there yesterday to warm it up.    Then today, fired it up and baked.   It was that simple.    Except it may take me awhile to get back into the routine.   This bread was totally overproofed since it took me forever to get a fire going and the weather is so warm that proofing was fast.    If I had baked it in that state in my gas oven, it would have just sunk like a stone.   Also, I didn't quite manage to get a steam pan into the oven.   Too much to keep track of.   Next time.  

This bread is a multigrain sourdough.   The wrinkle is that I threw in my leftover rye malt.   My son said it was delicious.    I thought it tasted vaguely similar to eating a beer.   Not sure why, since most beer isn't made with rye.    So actually pretty good, but strange.  

Here is my hobo oven ready for baking:

Update:   Formula and Method

Ok, so it's not going to win any beauty contests, but it tasted great! It was really sour, with a crunchy crust, and moist inside! I am very pleased!

Starter technique
I liked the idea of making a starter from just flour and water (and no juice or other stuff), so that's what I did. I used whole wheat flour, because I was less likely to run out of it in the near future! (I live in a rural area and can't always get to the supermarket.) I fed it 1/4 c whole wheat flour and some water, twice per day, and let it sit out on the table. I just sort of eyeballed the water amount. Later on I decided I had been under-watering it, and gave it a bit more. I don't know if I was right on this count, but anyway, it worked out fine. It took about a week before I was satisfied that the starter was fully bubbly and mature enough to use.

Bread recipe
My recipe was simple: Starter + flour + water + salt
1 1/2c Starter
2c Bread flour
3/4 tsp Salt
as much water as I thought looked right...

It took some 3 hours for the bulk rise, then another 2 for the formed rise. I don't have a bread peel so getting the round from my cutting board to the baking sheet was a little tricky--I used two large spatulas. For steam I put some water in an old pan and set it on the bottom rack of the oven. I left it in there the whole baking time. (I've since read that steam is only supposed to be present for the first half of baking, though it turned out great anyway.) I don't have a baking stone either, so I doubled up two cookie sheets and baked it on that.

Given this success, my husband has started talking about chocolate sourdough bread, so that may just be my next challenge. Oh, that, and figuring out how to maintain my starter.

A few weeks ago I found an excellent sourdough website created by Teresa Greenway and saved a few recipes to add to my future bake list.  I finally decided to give one a try and baked her recipe for an Alaskan Sourdough bread.  This bread is slightly sweet similar to a shepherder's bread.  The overall bread is 67% hydration and uses some interesting ingredients like evaporated milk.  You can find the original recipe here http://www.northwestsourdough.com/files/extra/Alaska.pdf.

I of course couldn't follow the recipe exactly the way it was written and had to make some modifications.  I decided to add some whole wheat flour and also used KAF European style flour along with KAF bread flour.  The original recipe calls for bread flour only.  I also use evaporated organic cane juice sugar instead of white sugar and used my 65% hydration starter in place of the 168% starter in the recipe.  I used this nifty hydration calculator to adjust the amount of starter and water to fit my starter and it worked out great.

The other thing I changed is the method of preparing the dough as I followed my normal version based on Peter Reinhart's procedures which fits in my schedule much better.

This bread turned out as good as I could have hope for and ended up with a more sour flavor than expected.  I did forget to put the glaze on the breads but it turned out great without it.  Next time I will have to give the sugar based glaze a try.

Ingredients

11.8 ounces 65% Hydration Starter Refreshed

18.92 oz. Water (90 degrees F.)

4 oz. Evaporated milk

2 Tbsp Evaporated cane Juice Organic Sugar, 1 oz. (or use white sugar or honey)

2 Tbsp Melted butter (unsalted), 1 oz.

8 oz. Whole Wheat Flour (I used KAF)

16 oz. European Style KAF

10 oz. Bread flour

4 Tsp Sea Salt, .8 oz.

Directions

Using your stand mixer or by hand, mix the evaporated milk and water with the starter to break up the starter.

Add the flours and butter and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes.   Do not add the salt yet.  Let rest for 20 minutes and then add the salt by sprinkling it over the dough.  Mix on medium speed for 4 minutes.

Remove dough to your lightly floured work surface and need for 1 minute and form a ball.

Leave uncovered for 10 minutes.

Do a stretch and fold and form into a ball again and cover with a clean moist cloth or oiled plastic wrap.

After another 10 minutes do another stretch and fold and put into a lightly oiled bowl that has enough room so the dough can double overnight.

Leave the covered dough in your bowl at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours and then put it in your refrigerator overnight or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread, take the bowl out of your refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours form the dough into Boules being careful not to handle the dough too roughly so you don't de-gas it.  Place it in your bowl or banneton and cover it with a moist lint free towel or oiled plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

Pre-heat oven with baking stone (I use one on bottom and one on top shelf of my oven), to 500 degrees F.

When ready to bake make a hole with your thumb down the middle of the dough and then slash in 4 places around the hole.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to signify something Alaskan, but it looks pretty cool when it is baked off.

Pour 1 cup of very hot water into pan and place loaves into oven.

Lower oven to 450 Degrees and bake for 25 - 35 minutes until bread is golden brown and internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

I was very happy with the look and taste of this bread.  It will make 2 pretty large loaves around 2 lbs 3 oz. each.

Please visit the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/ for lots of cool recipes.  You can also visit my other blog at www.mookielovesbread.wordpress.com for some of my older posts.

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/08/25/cranberry-oat-sourdough-scones/

Made these quick and delicious scones using pantry ingrediants so made some changes:

Used KAF WWW for all flours, including oat

Added 0.5C walnut chips

Used frozen and thawed sourdough starter 

Used 0.13tsp of KAF Fiori di Sicilia instead of the lemon zest

The instructions were clear and the dough went together smoothly and quickly.  I forgot to brush with milk and pulled the scones out a minute into baking to sprinkle with sanding sugar.  

I'm rather used to scones being thick and heavy, so was surprised at how light and fluffy these were while still having a nice crust on them.  They were not overly sweet, but I think I will forgo the extra sugar and even cut a bit out of the dough next time.  I have no idea if the sourdough would help preserve freshness as they were eaten too quickly!  Will certainly be making again.  

For St Paddy's day I decided to not do a croissant bread or one shaped into an Irish Harp but one that was sort of shaped into a soccer ball (the national sport of Ireland by far) with alternating green and a white-ish patches.  Plus it had to have a bottle of Guinness as well  along with 10% WW and Rye for a well rounded flavor.  I won't have crumb shots till tomorrow but the crust turned out a deep brown with cracks, just like the last DO SD bread managed to exhibit.  The spring was about 3" or about 75%.  It started 1" blow the rim of the DO when it went in the oven and ended up 2 inches above it.  It is a fine looking loaf.  Here are some pix's and the recipe follows them.  Couldn't wait - here are some crumb shots.

St Paddy’s Day  Dutch Oven  Sourdough- Tartine Method

Yield: one 1065 g loaf.

Ingredients

Levain Build

125 g KA AP flour

50 g Whole wheat flour

50 g Whole rye flour

140 g water, cool (60 For so)

50 g active starter (75% hydration)

Final Dough (75% hydration, including levain)

30 g rye

225 g KA AP flour

225 g KA bread flour

340 g Guinness (1 -12 oz bottle)

50 g water

1 tsp barely malt syrup

10 g pink Himalayan sea salt (1.5%)

Directions

1. Levain : Make the final build 10-12 hours before the final mix.

2. Mix: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, including the levain, but not the salt. Mix just until the ingredients are incorporated into a shaggy mass. Correct the hydration as necessary. Cover the bowl and let stand for an autolyse phase of 60 minutes. At the end of the autolyse, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough, and knead 8 minutes with dough hook on KA .

3. The dough should have a medium consistency and pass window pane. Divide in half and place ½ in an oiled bowl and cover.  Add green food coloring (about ½ tsp) to the remaining half and mix with dough hook on speed 3 until incorporated.  Move green dough to an oiled bowl and cover.

3. Ferment with S&F: 3 hours. Stretch and fold each dough in the bowl 4 strokes at 15 minute intervals 3 times. Stretch and fold again, 4 strokes, at the one hour mark folding each dough into a ball in lightly oiled bowl. Do 1 S &F two more times at 90 and 120 minutes. Form each dough ball into 8 smaller balls (about 75 g each) being sure to stretch the skin tight.  Arrange balls in DO (8” w x 4” tall) alternating colors using 7 balls on the bottom layer and 7 balls on the next layer making sure to alternate colors vertically too.  There will be 6 balls in a perimeter circle and1 inthe middle for each layer.  Place the remaining 2 balls on top near the center.  Wet palm of hand and press top of dough assembly flat.  Cover and let rise for 1 hour until the dough has risen 50%.

4. Retard for 8-20 hours in the refrigerator, depending on how much time you have and sour your taste.

5. Take DO out of refrigerator let it come to room temperature about 1 ½ hours

6. Ready to bake when poke test dictates.

7. Pre-heat: oven to 500 with steam apparatus in place - 45 minutes minimum. I use a loaf pan half full of water and a dry 12”cast iron skillet that go in the bottom rack of the oven at the beginning of pre heat and the stone on the rack above.

8. Bake: Do not slash loaf.  Place DO in a 500 F degree oven on the stone for 15 minutes.  Remove cover, turn down oven to 450 F and throw 1 cup of water in the iron skillet for additional steaming.  Bake an additional 10 minutes.   Turn down oven temperature to 425 F (convection this time) and remove steaming apparatus.  Also remove loaf from DO and place on the stone.  Bake about 30 minutes more, turning loaf every 8 minutes for browning evenness as necessary. When done (205 F internal temp), leave loaf on stone with oven door ajar, oven off for 12 minutes. Move to cooling rack until loaf is room temperature.

13Mar

I finally got a chance to bake some bread tonight after making a bunch of pizza over the weekend for my family.

I don’t even like coffee, but I actually love the smell and if you throw in some ice and a little sugar I can be convinced to drink a glass or two.  Anyway, I was all set to make an adaptation of a bread I discovered on the internet called a Hawaiian Sour Dough when I realized I didn’t have enough starter or all of the ingredients necessary to make this bread.  Instead I decided to put our new Keurig to good use and brewed some Mudslide flavored coffee.  I added this in place of most of the water in my recipe along with my sour dough starter, rye flours, spelt flour and some wheat germ.  For good  measure I added some carmelized onions that I had left over from my barbecue pizza and also used some pistachio oil I had bought a little while ago.  I thought the nutty oil would go well with the rye flours and flavorful coffee.

I do have to admit that the dough smelled amazing before it went into the oven from the mudslide coffee and hopefully when I cut into the loaf tomorrow morning it will taste even better.

Ingredients

15.5 ounces 65% Hydration Starter Refreshed

11 oz. Coffee  cooled to 90 degrees F. (I used Mudslide flavored coffee)

4 oz. water (90 degrees F.)

9 ounces First Clear Flour (or strong bread flour)

4 ounces White Rye Flour

4 ounces Pumpernickel Flour

2 ounces Spelt Flour

1 ounce  Wheat Germ

2.5 ounces Carmelized Onions

2 1/2 Teaspoons Sea Salt

1 Tablespoon Pistachio Oil

Directions

Using your stand mixer or by hand, mix the coffee and water with the starter to break up the starter.

Add the flours, salt, oil, and onions and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes

Mix for 4 minutes more on medium speed, adding more flour if necessary to produce a slightly sticky ball of dough.

Remove dough to your lightly floured work surface and need for 1 minute and form a ball.

Leave uncovered for 10 minutes.

Do a stretch and fold and form into a ball again and cover with a clean moist cloth or oiled plastic wrap.

After another 10 minutes do another stretch and fold and put into a lightly oiled bowl that has enough room so the dough can double overnight.

Leave the covered dough in your bowl at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours and then put it in your refrigerator overnight or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread, take the bowl out of your refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours shape the dough as desired being careful not to handle the dough too roughly so you don’t de-gas it.  Place it in your bowl, banneton or shape into baguettes.

L

Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours covered with oiled plastic wrap or a wet cloth.

Pre-heat oven with baking stone (I use one on bottom and one on top shelf of my oven), to 500 degrees F.

Slash loaves as desired and place empty pan in bottom shelf of oven.

Pour 1 cup of very hot water into pan and place loaves into oven.

Lower oven to 450 Degrees and bake for 25 – 35 minutes until bread is golden brown and internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

The final dough had a nice subtle rye flavor with some sour undertones.  You don’t really taste the coffee flavor very much and the crumb was a little tighter than I would have liked.  Overall the bread was a success and is worth making again.

Please visit the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/ for lots of cool recipes

Here is an everyday Tartine method DO sourdough with 30% rye, WW, bulgar and farro in the levine, boilded soaker and dough.

This loaf was only retarded 4 hours.  The cold DO was placed in a 500 F oven.   The spring was about 75% in the DO after 20 minutes c0vered.  The bread was then baked at 425 F convection oven uncovered for 10 minutes and then the bread was taken out of the DO and placed on the stone and baked until the internal temperature was 205 F.  It was then left in the off oven with the door ajar for 12 minutes to further crisp the crust.  The crust was dark and crisp. The crumb came out light, airy, soft moist and moderately open with the cracked berries coming through.  The taste is its best quality with a medium sour note.  This will make a nice sandwich loaf.  Recipe follows Pix's

Everyday Rustic Country Sourdough

Yield: one 850 g Loaf

Ingredients

Levain Build

50 g KA AP flour

25 g Whole wheat flour

25 g Whole rye flour

75 g water, cool (60 For so)

25 g active starter (100% hydration)

Boiled Soaker

10 g rye berries cracked

10 g WW berries cracked

10 g farro

10 g bulgar

Final Dough (77% hydration, including levain excluding the soaker)

25 g rye

25 g whole wheat

15 g bulgar

15 g farro

170 g KA AP flour

170 g KA bread flour

325 g warm water (80 For so)

1 tsp barely malt syrup

8 gpink Himalayan sea salt (1.5%)

Boil and Soak – soaker ingredients in twice as much water by volume. Bring to a boil and turn off heat and let soak until cool.

Directions

1. Levain : Make the final build 10-12 hours before the final mix.

2. Mix: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, including the levain, but not the salt or the soaker. Mix just until the ingredients are incorporated into a shaggy mass. Correct the hydration as necessary. Cover the bowl and let stand for an autolyse phase of 60 minutes. At the end of the autolyse, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough, and knead 8 minutes with dough hook on KA 3. The dough should have a medium consistency. Add the scalded and caramelized berries and mix on KA 3 for 1 minute

3. Ferment with S&F: 2 hours. Stretch and fold the dough in the bowl 4 strokes at  15 minute intervals for  1 hour. Stretch and fold again, 4 strokes, at the one hour mark folding it into a ball in lightly oiled bowl. Do 1 S &F two more times at 90 and 120 minutes. Form into ball stretching the skin tight and place in floured benetton or shape into a batard leave to ferment 1-2 more hours until the dough is at least 75% larger than when you started the ferment. Remove from bennetton and bake as below.

If doing DO Tartine method form into ball and place in DO for final rise and bake as below.

4. If retarding: do 1 S&F in the lightly oiled bowl forming the dough into a ball again. Refrigerate 8-20 hours, depending on how much time you have and sour your taste.

5. Take dough out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature about 1 ½ hours.  Pre-shape, then shape into boules or batards 20 minutes later. OR, if doing Tartine method, form into ball and place into cast iron DO for final proof.  Bake as below.

6. Proof: Approximately 1.5 to 2.5 hours at 82 F. Ready when poke test dictates.

7. Pre-heat: oven to 500 with steam apparatus in place - 45 minutes minimum. I use a loaf pan half full of water and a dry 12”cast iron skillet that go in the bottom rack of the oven at the beginning of pre heat and the stone on the rack above. When the loaf goes in,  throw 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron skillet right after loading the bread on the stone.

8. Bake: Do not slash loaf. Bake seam side up on stone at500 Ffor 5 minutes, turn down temperature to 450 F and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove steaming apparatus after 15 minutes. Turn down oven to425 Fconvection now and bake 15 minutes more, turning loaf every 5 minutes for browning evenness as necessary. When done (205 F internal temp), leave loaf on stone with oven door ajar, oven off for 10 minutes. Move to cooling rack until loaf is room temperature.

If doing DO, Bake at 20 minutes at500 Fremove lid and turn down oven to 425 F convection and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from DO and place on stone to bake until loaf is205 Fon the inside.  Turn off oven, keep door ajar and let loaf rest on the stone for 12 minutes before removing to cooling rack.

Received my starter from KAF at Thursday lunch and San Joaquin sourdough out of the oven Saturday afternoon.  I used this version:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24078/san-joaquin-sourdough-update

My only changes were to use KAF WWW instead of rye and to retard for 15 hrs not 21.  

All was well until, for some reason, I decided to use parchment paper instead of tea towels for the final proof.  My loaves stuck and got rather deformed and deflated in their removal.  <sigh>  Scoring also didn't go well as there was little surface tension and crust left.  But the amazing oven spring made them look much nicer than they had any right to be.