Adjusting my methods for Sourdough loaf
I am still lacking consistency bake to bake. One reason is that I’m only baking sourdough every 2 weeks on average, but this week got another bake in. I’ve still been trying Maurizio’s Beginner Sourdough as that was the first one I started with and wanted to gain some confidence baking it. Two weeks ago I made an error and added way too much water and the dough lacked structure, it tasted fine but it was a bit on the pancake side of things. This week I decided to hold back 20 g of water during autolyse, so rather than 78% hydration the bread would be 74%. I estimate that the water I wet my hands with during the three sets of coil folds I did added back another 10 g or so, so perhaps the bread turned out to be 76% hydration? The bread is about 80% white strong flour, 16% whole Red Fife and 4% whole rye. I’ve also adjusted down the temperature after baking in the Dutch oven. For this bake I turned the temperature down to 400ºF after taking the lid off the Dutch oven and then also placed the bread directly on the oven rack instead of back in the Dutch over uncovered. I have found that the crust has been a bit too thick for my tastes, I would prefer slightly thinner. We shall see if this change made any difference.
I will post crumb shots later tonight or tomorrow as this bread part of tonight’s dinner with friends.
Comments
Good bake I think. This was probably my most successful to date.
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That is some great looking bread, Benny! You may not feel like you have it consistently down yet, but I'd be very happy to have a loaf like that come out of the oven! Crumb looks great! :)
Rich
Thank you Rich, I think it was my most successful bake to date.
Benny
Everything about that bread is gorgeous!
I’d be willing to bet, you used Kristen’s shaping style on that dough. I know others use that same method. It really tightens the skin and forces the bread to spring up. The ends of those loaves also have a distinct slight “dent” in the ends. It is my present favorite way to shape a batard. Am I right or wrong?
Dan
Dan you are a super bread sleuth! Yes I’ve adopted Kristen’s shaping for batards. Of course she does it much better but it did work for me. I think the combination of coil folding, Kristen’s shaping method and decreasing the hydration worked well for me.
It’s funny that you mention the dents in the ends of the loaf, I had noticed those too and wasn’t sure why they occurred. Thanks for the compliment on this bake.
Benny
Benny, I think those dents are caused by the initial letter fold that is done during shaping. But, not a big deal for me because the results are stellar.
I do wish I could make a slightly longer loaf using this shaping method, but so far I haven’t broken the code. My bread often look like a combination between a boule and a batard. I fondly call them “BouLards”. He he...
Here is Bake #1, a 100% Hard Red Wheat that just came out of the oven. I baked it according to Barry, aka BarryVaBeach’s formula and my method.
Wow, that is gorgeous Dan, that ear is like a sail. I like that shape as you say between a batard and boule, my Dutch oven couldn’t turn anything much longer than that out. That loaf looks great especially for a 100% whole grain.
Benny
Great bakes! I want that pie badly. Everything about the loaf is perfect.
Thanks so much for the compliment from such a skilled baker!
Benny