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JerrytheK's picture
JerrytheK

Hi, my most-recent sourdough bake resulted in (with an apology to the real things) hockey pucks. The dough was clearly over proofed after a 10 hour or so overnight proof.

Followed the usual FWSY recipe for overnight 40% WW bread.

My kitchen's usually in the mid 60s F in the winter, and is now running in the mid 70s.

Should I use less leavain?

Colder water for the mix?

Thanks!

JerrytheK's picture
JerrytheK

I've read/skimmed Richard Bertinet's bread books. It would be fun to take his courses at his school in Bath, England, but I live in the US and the courses are pricey. He's an advocate of the 'slap and fold' technique.

I came upon a newly launched video course web site, Learningwithexperts.com on which he has a course.

It's a four-part course that I bought. The site's pricing is interesting. In the US, the course is US$100. But in the UK, the course is £ 29, which is about US$37.

You need a VPN service, such as hola.org, (also useful if you want to use UK sites such as this, the BBC, etc.) if you want to get to the UK pricing when not in the UK. I think it's worth the lower price, but I'd not pay the US price.

I also bought Michele Roux's cooking course. Also pretty good.

This discount code may work, DAD20.

I've no economic interest if you sign up.

 

JerrytheK's picture
JerrytheK

This is a follow up to a previous post asking if anyone had ever tried the Poilâne-style sourdough bread.

No one had, someone suggested I try it, and here's my results.

I've posted the full recipe from the book Poilâne.

For the most part, because this was a first attempt, I followed the recipe as closely as I could.

Because you can refer to the recipe in the pictures, I'll just mention how I varied from the recipe and some other details.

I used Whole Foods Everyday 365 WW flour and Central Milling's Organic Unbleached AP Flour (from Costco).

Regular tap water.

Non-fat Greek yogurt (all that was available at the time!).

The first rise after mixing called for :45. Very little rise occurred. I kicked up the temperature from 23C/73F to 28C/82F for another :20 + :10 for a total time of 1:15.

The final mix weighed 2103g and was to be baked in a 12" cast iron pot. I only have 8 quart dutch ovens, so I divided the dough into two loaves and put them into floured baskets. I'm awaiting linen liners, so I had to skip those too.

The second rise was to take 2:00, but the dough seemed to be ready at about 1:45.

Baked in a 465F convection oven, first :10 covered, then just :40, rather than :45 more. I baked it to an internal temp of 201F/94C. As I'm at about 5,400' above sea level, that's as hot as any bread I've baked can reach.

As you can see, the bread has fairly tight crumb. Somewhere in the book she mentions that their style produces tighter crumb than one usually expects.

Taste was good, but not that 'sourdoughish'.

Would I try this again?

Yes, but here's what I'd change. It was a fun exercise making a dough that needed to be kneaded (and who says English isn't a difficult language to learn?!) and a departure from the regular bread-baking routine.

Kick up the hydration. I'm in Colorado, and our ingredients are very dry, because of the low relative humidity, particularly in the winter. The starter's hydration (ignoring the yogurt) is about 76% and the dough is about 65%. I'd kick up the dough to about 70% next time.

For the first rise, I'd lightly grease the bowl with olive oil. The dough was sticky and a bit difficult to cleanly get out of the bowl.

I might also add a bit of time (judging at the time on the condition of the rise) for the second rise.

After another try with the standard ingredients, I may also make it using home-milled whole wheat flour.

I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions or criticisms.

 

JerrytheK's picture
JerrytheK

Just saw a reference to a sourdough podcast from one of the newspapers I subscribe to.

I've not listened to it, so I can't give an opinion to the pod casts.

From a quick scan of the web site, the content looks to be quite good though.

https://www.thesourdoughpodcast.com

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