The Fresh Loaf

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breadbakingbass...

If your starter is over fermented... Don't mix the final dough with it...  This happened to me again this morning...  I proceeded to mix the final dough with the overfermented starter...  The dough never came together and remained a sticky mess...  Yuk!

 

I should have just tossed out the starter and started over and not wasted 2kg more of flour...

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Hi All,

I just wanted to share with you my final bakes of 2009.  I was unable to post them earlier as I went to Japan for Christmas and New Years...  This was a year of much improvement for me, perfecting my version of baguettes, getting the hang of sourdough, refrigerated bulk fermentation, baking very large loaves, making pizza dough, and kneading large quantities (7-8kg) of dough by hand successfully.

Wishing all of you much baking success in 2010.  Now I'm off to do my first bake of the 2010.

Cheers,

Tim

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Hi All,

Just wanted to share with you some pics of the 2.2kg miche that I baked on 12/13/09...  It's the biggest bread that I have ever baked, and one of the best tasting...  Enjoy!

Tim

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breadbakingbass...

So last night I threw out over 5kg of dough. After making 2 succesfull attempt at making a variation of based on Shiao-Ping's Artisan III class at the SFBI:

"Miche, Sourdough with Two Levain Builds: 230% in Final Dough"

I decided to increase the recipe to about 5kg of dough... as I have an office party to bring bread to tomorrow...

I went through the steps that had afforded me successful loaves (2x660g loaves, and 1x2.2kg loaf)...  Since I live in an NYC apt, we don't really have control of our heating system, so my apartment tends to be hot and dry...  Anyways, I did the 1st levain build successfully with a 10 hr fermentation, but when I got home from work to check on the 2nd levain build, it had already collapsed and had turned into a bubbly foamy mess...  I think I let the 2nd levain build go for 12 hrs, instead of the 6 from the previous batch...  In retrospect, I should have just tossed the levain build and start over, but stupid me, I decided to continue with making the final dough and hope that it would work...

So I ended up making the final dough, and it was basically a sticky mess that got worse the more I tried to work with it...  It would stir, but never firm up... As I worked with it, I just kept getting my hands trapped.  I decided to divide up the dough (snot-like glop) into 2 plastic containers and fridge them to see if that would help...  As you can guess, it didn't.

I put one of the containers of dough back into the mixing bowl and tried to work it with my hands/spatula to no avail...  At that point, I decided to throw it all out and start over...

So I started over...  with just a simple french bread...  I checked the new dough (3kg) this morning after 8 hours in the fridge, and it looks good so far...  I turned it again before I left for work and put it back into the fridge for another 8 hours...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight's bake...

Quoting Kenny Rogers:  

You gotta know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold em

Know when to walk away

Know when to run...

Tim

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Flours that I have used:

Hecker's Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Hecker's Whole Wheat Flour

Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour

Arrowhead Mills Organic Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Arrowhead Mills Organic Rye Flour

Whole Foods Market 365 Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Whole Foods Market 365 Whole Wheat Flour

King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour

King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

King Arthur Organic Unbleached Bread Flour

Bob's Red Mill Organic Unbleached Bread Flour

Bob's Red Mill Semonlina Flour

Indian Head White Cornmeal

I use the following flours interchangably. 

Hecker's Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Arrowhead Mills Organic Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Whole Foods Market 365 Unbleached All Purpose Flour

It depends on where I am in the city, and what's on sale.  I've gotten good results with all three of them.  I prefer using mostly all-purpose flours because find breads made with 100% bread flour too chewy for my taste.  If I do use bread flour, I will only use between 10% to 50% for the total flour weight of the recipe.

I really like Arrowhead Mills Organic Rye Flour in small portions for most of my breads, and to make sourdough starters...

As for whole wheat, I prefer Hecker's Whole Wheat flour.  It's cheap and readily available in NYC...

I have been tempted to order special flours by internet/mail, but I can't seem to justify the extra expense...  It's just not worth it for me to spend the extra money on shipping, and besides isn't it more environmentally sound to go local?

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

25% Semolina Sourdough - 12/7/09

 

Starter Build 1

50g - stiff starter (active)

50g - semolina (Bob's Red Mill)

50g - bread flour (KA Organic)

100g - water

 

Starter Build 2

250g - all of starter build 1

100g - semolina

100g - AP flour (Whole Foods or Hecker's)

100g - water

 

Final Dough - 2296g total dough weight @ about 72% hydration

550g - all of starter build 2

500g - AP flour

250g - bread flour

250g - semolina

720g - water

26g  - Kosher salt

 

Instructions

Starter Build 1

-Mix ingredients for Starter Build 1, cover and let ferment for 8-12 hours or until doubled, bubbly and sinking in slightly at center.

 

Starter Build 2

-Mix ingredients for Starter Build 2, cover and let ferment for 8-12 hours or until doubled, bubbly and sinking in slightly at center.

 

Final Dough

-Mix all ingredients in large metal mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, cover and let rest (autolyse) for 20-30 minutes.

-After rest, knead dough in bowl using wet hand using the French fold method for about 5 minutes working out any lumps.  Cover and let rest for 20-30  minutes.

-After rest, turn dough using stretch and fold method in bowl with wet hands.  Do not add any flour.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

-Repeat stretch and folds 4 times at 15 minute intervals.

-After last turn, place dough into lightly oiled container, cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

-Turn dough one last time after 15 minutes, and return to refrigerator for 21 to 24 hours.

 

Bake Day

-Remove dough from refrigerator, divide into 4 pieces (574g), shape into boule and transfer to bowl lined with a lightly floured tea towel/linen, or floured bannetton.  Place proofing bowls in large plastic bag to prevent dough from drying out.  Proof for about 2 hours or until dough passes the poke test...

-45 minutes before loaves are finished proofing, place baking stone in oven on 2nd shelf up from bottom and preheat to 550F.

-When loaves are proofed and oven has reached 550F, place loaves on to peel, slash, and place directly onto stone, steam, turn oven temp down to 450F, and bake for 50 minutes, rotating loaves halfway through bake.  Loaves are done when internal temp is between 205F to 210F.

-Cool completely before cutting and eating.

 

Notes

-These turned out really good!!!  4 loaves are a very tight fit on a 14" x 16" baking stone, but it will work... 

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