hmcinorganic's blog

I'm back from Kyoto and in my first week, I've re-awakened my starter and am tonight attempting to make sourdough. I used 5 oz starter (nice and bubbly and active, 100% starter) 10 oz water and 15 oz white flour. The dough is really wet; I couldn't do stretch and folds because it was sticking to everything. So, I folded and kneaded in at least another cup of flour and it is retarding in the fridge under olive oil as we speak. It smells good but I am really out of practice.  I forgot to add salt until it was almost too late, but I sprinkled in about 1-1.5 tsp of salt while kneading.

I am living in Kyoto this year (from August 2011 until July 2012) and we have such a tiny kitchen and no oven.  I really miss baking bread.  I had to give my starter to a friend to hopefully keep alive for me.  

Most of the bread here is pretty bad; white sandwich bread, but there are a lot of small bakeries that make french loaves, and we treat ourselves to them from time to time.  And, of course, they have sweets too :)

this loaf came together GREAT, following my old standard 1,2,3 sourdough bread recipe here but using 1/3 whole wheat flour.  

9 oz starter (rejuvenated after a several week hiatus)

18 oz water

18 oz bread flour + 9 oz whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp salt

I mixed and kneaded for about 2 minutes, then did 2 stretch and folds. The dough behaved very well;  not too wet, and it held its shape.

I left it out on the counter overnight and it about doubled in size in 11 hours (cold kitchen, but that seems slow).  I divided and made 2 round boules, let it rise for about 2 hours, slashed with tic-tac-toe, and baked on my stone with steam (500 °F for 2 minutes, 450°F for about 40).  It smelled GREAT.

Here is the loaf shot:

and here is the crumb shot.  Nice even crumb.

What doesn't come through the web is the nice nice flavor.  Yum.

I posted yesterday about making gift certificates for Christmas presents.  I was able to find an editable (MS Word) document and I included some loaf shots. I'll be giving these out to a bunch of people. Here is the certificate I made:

Made the old standby again.  I really love this bread.  I have a question though.  First, the recipe:

9 oz starter (100% hydration)

9 oz whole wheat flour

9 oz white flour

9 oz bread flour

18 oz water

1 T salt

I mixed it all in my KA for about 5 minutes, then did 2 stretch and folds over an hour.  The dough was VERY wet so I folded in about 1/8 cup flour.  It retarded overnight in the fridge, then one more stretch and fold, divide, preshape.  Rest and rise for about an hour.  Then shaped and pulled taut.

Cooked with steam in a 450 °F oven for 35-40 minutes.  It had good oven spring, and looks GREAT.

Here is my question:

my bread is pretty flat before I put it in the oven.  It doesn't hold its shape while rising.  Maybe I shouldn't worry about it, but would slightly drier dough help here?  my dough is very wet, but it usually tastes great.  Any thoughts?  I supposed I could rise it upside down in a towel-lined-flour-covered bowl or wicker basket.  But I don't have 2...

text to come soon, but here are some pictures of my sourdough from october 28th.  They turned out well!  I need a scoring lesson.  any good recommendations on this site?

baguette

boule before cooking.  I'm not really sure how to slash it...

and after

<picture>  not uploading right now...

this is my old standby the 1,2,3 sourdough.  I used 9 oz starter, 16 oz water (my starter is too wet) and 9 oz white, 9 oz bread and 9 oz whole wheat flour.  and 1 Tbsp salt.  I mixed for 2 minutes in my KA and then did 3 stretch and folds over 2 hours.  It developed nicely.  I fermented in the fridge for about 6-8 hours and then shaped using my brotform pans (that I haven't used in several years).  One boule and one baguette.  I couldn't get the chill off the dough so the rising time was a long time.  more than 90 minutes.  I have a real hard time telling if the bread has rose enough.

Scoring was ok;  I think on the baguette I should have had only 3 slashes;  but the top and bottom ears turned out really well with "gringe?"  the boule did not rise as much.  I think I need to try a tic-tac-toe scoring.  

these are for a dinner party tomorrow.  I 'll try to grab a crumb shot before they evaporate.  They smell great!

I made my old standby yesterday and today, 123 sourdough.  The dough was very wet;  I must have either a >100% starter or I mismeasured.  I used only white flour, and I know that that sometimes leads to wetter doughs, but I've made 100% white before and it wasn't a problem.  It was extraordinarily hard to shape and work with.  I made a double batch;  4 loaves.  two rose in small bowls in the fridge overnight and two rose in loaf pans.  Not a lot of oven spring on the "boules" but the loaf pans gave more support and they turned out better.  Of course, they taste phenomenal.  I am very pleased with my sourdough.

No pix this time.  But wanted to post my loaf.  I will be giving one loaf away, and one is in the freezer for later.  (and of course, one is half gone already).

I am brining bread to a party on Friday so I need to start another batch.  

Not sure that this is going to last long enough to make sandwiches out of...... its good.

I followed the 123 recipe here.

mixed 9-10 oz starter, 18 oz bread flour, 9 oz regular flour, 18 oz water and 1 Tbsp salt (remembered to add salt this time!)

did 2 stretch and folds, retarded in fridge overnight.  Did one more stretch and fold, shaped, and put in loaf pans.  Let sit in fridge for 8-10 hours.  Let it warm up to room temp for about 60 minutes while oven preheated;  put it in even though it was still cold.  I was worried it wouldn't rise much, but it seemed to do ok.  Cooked at 500 for 10 minutes and 425 for 30-35 more.  

Crust is nice and chewy, and check out the crumb!

I had a piece with butter for breakfast.  Yummo.  I doubt it will last the day :)

I haven't baked in a while;  super busy at work.  I just made the bread described on this page, modified to not include raisins (no one in my family likes raisins except me).  My 5 year old helped with the measuring for a school math assignment.  It came together easily, and the gluten developed with 2 minutes of kneading, and 3 rounds of stretch and fold over 2 hours.  The dough was dryer than I'm used to working with lately, and it took a while for all the liquid to spread through and hydrate the whole wheat flour.  But, it smells really good.  It rose very high (much higher than I'm used to... maybe its the yeast.  I'm used to working with my sourdough starter now!).  

Loaves are in the oven and they look great.  Good proofing and oven spring.  I can't wait to try them.

onward!

Tonight I needed a quick loaf for sandwiches and I had a bit of free time, so I made this loaf from Bernard Clayton's new complete book of breads.  After making so much sourdough lately, it was nice to get a completely different smell in the kitchen.  This is a standby recipe;  when I opened the book, this was bookmarked already.  

I forgot all about it while making it;  its supposed to be a single rise bread but I left it in the mixer while helping the kids with piano lessons.  After about an hour, it had risen in the mixer nicely.  (I had meant to mix for 5 min, let rest 20 min, then finish kneading for 3-5 more).  Instead, I loafed it (it was very sticky for some reason) and let it rise.  And proceeded to completely forget about it AGAIN.  At one point, I looked up and saw the loaves, so quickly preheated the oven (425 for 35 min, no steam).  The crust is nice and dark.  They smell great.  Toast for breakfast.  Mmmmmm.

Nothing rustic about it.  Just some good quality bread.  Very yeasty aroma when I opened it up.  Nice even soft crumb with a hard crust.  Lovely.

I've been on vacation and not baking for a while.  I have been keeping my starter going, however.  Last week I made the 1/3 whole wheat 1-2-3 sourdough ... again.  I'm caught in a rut :)  

I forgot the salt though, and had to mix it in after 2 or 3 stretch and folds.  Seemed to work ok though.  Bread was good, but I forgot to take pictures.  I made 4 small baguettes.  Those are just hard to shape;  I need practice.  Scoring was good (I did 3 - 4 lengthwise slashes) but the bread was underproofed.

I have a question about storing bread.  I've read here on this site that you shouldn't store bread in plastic, as that makes it soggy and moldy, and that the fridge isn't good either.  We normally eat 1/4 of each batch the day its made, I give some away, but the last loaf sits around and gets very hard.  Still tastes fine....  I've taken to slicing up the last loaf and freezing it to make croutons or bread pudding "starters".  

I am baking the 1-2-3 loaf again today.  My starter got very runny, too much water at the last feeding, so I had to add a bit less water than called for.  I *didn't* forget the salt :)  I shaped it into to boules and they are rising right now on the counter.  I"ll post pictures later today when they're done.  

Its good to be back home and into my bread routine again.  I am going to make regular whole wheat sandwich bread tomorrow as school is starting and we need to pack lunches again...