The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sesame Sourdough

Benito's picture
Benito

Sesame Sourdough

I wanted to try baking a 100% (or close to 100%) white flour only hearth loaf as I don’t think I’ve done this before.  It isn’t perfect, the scoring was off center in a way that altered the ultimate bloom and shape of the loaf.  Despite the great blisters, I wonder if I allowed sufficient fermentation.  I had to cut final bench proof short because of life getting in the way of baking LOL.

Comments

justkeepswimming's picture
justkeepswimming

Those blisters.... ? And you raise an interesting point. I did a couple of no-knead yeast based hearth breads early on, but have never done a SD version. I might need to give that a try at some point. 

Looking forward to the crumb! 

Benito's picture
Benito

Funny isn’t it Mary?  I’ve been working on my 100% whole grain breads, red fife specifically and then suddenly realize I’ve never done 100% (other than a tiny bit of rye in the starter) white flour SD hearth loaf.  I’m not 100% hopeful for the crumb but I’ll cross my fingers that it is fine, probably not wow.

Benny

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Benny.. you've been baking up storm.!! Wow. This looks great.

And don't be so hard on yourself. Anyone would be grateful to make and/or eat a loaf this good looking! Well done.. again!

frank!

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Frank, you know what it is like when things don’t turn out as well as you were hoping for.  Bakers are such perfectionists.

Benny

Booda's picture
Booda

What's not to like about that loaf? Benny, you're such a nice guy and compliment everyone else on their bread, if you could only give yourself a pat on the back now and then. I think it's a beautiful loaf, with the rich, dark color, the blistering, and the beautiful patterns. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the crumb, or at least I would be. Very nice, Benny. 

Richard

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Richard. I’m always analyzing each bake and looking to improve them, this causes me to focus on the things that can be improved and not enough on the things that went well.  The next morning the bake doesn’t seem so bad anymore LOL.  The crust and scoring did turn out very well I have to admit.  We’ll see how the crumb turned out at lunch when I slice it.  Thanks again for your kind comments, they made me feel better.

Benny

Benito's picture
Benito

This bread is tasty, no surprise since it has sesame seeds in it and sesame makes everything taste better.  The crumb could be a bit more open, that doesn’t surprise me since I cut bulk short of what it needed to be.  Anyhow, overall not a bad bake, I’ll have to do this again and push fermentation further.

albacore's picture
albacore

Nice blisters, good loft and a fine crumb - I wish my blisters were that shiny!

 

Lance

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Lance.  It seems to be that one gets better blisters (or this was a one off) with all white flour loaves?  This loaf had the best blisters of any of my sourdough loaves so far.

Benny

justkeepswimming's picture
justkeepswimming

Interesting observation, you could be right. The only loaf that gave me a few little blisters was only 20% WW, the rest was white flour. 

Your crumb looks perfect! Well done. 

Mary

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Mary.  Of course it was only based on an anecdote so more baking will have to be done to confirm that.  I certainly haven’t have great blisters when baking the 100% whole grain loaves lately.

Benny

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Great looking loaf Benny!  Looks like a really nice bloom.

I might be missing it, but how much sesame seed did you add and did you add them during mixing or during lamination?

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Troy.  I didn’t do a full write up for this loaf, but I followed my usual practices and added sesame seeds very generously during lamination.

Benny

JonJ's picture
JonJ

...as usual! Well done.

The blisters really stand out on this bread. Did you try anything special for the blisters, e.g. ice in the dutch oven?

And what was the aliquot showing you when you did the shaping, out of curiosity?

-Jon

JonJ's picture
JonJ

...as usual! Well done.

The blisters really stand out on this bread. Did you try anything special for the blisters, e.g. ice in the dutch oven?

And what was the aliquot showing you when you did the shaping, out of curiosity?

-Jon

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Jon.  The aliquot jar showed 50% at the time of shaping, I usually wait until 60% for mostly white flour breads and then leave it to proof further on the bench before cold retard, I had wanted to go to 90% but with this all white dough is fermented more slowly than I expected, I should really not have been surprised, so put it in the fridge earlier than I wanted.  I really should have given it more bench time the next day but didn't.

I did my usual process of brushing the dough with water after scoring and loading into the dutch oven.  I am quite generous with the water so don't add an ice cube and there isn't really much room for an ice cube in my dutch oven, it would probably dent the loaf if I tried to add one.

Benny