Made G Snyder's San Francisco Country Sourdough version 3-13-11 modified with long bulk and shaped proofs. Came out great.

This month has been a milestone for me in my year of baking. After reading the post "the basic problem with my sourdough" and the comment thread, I revised my starter routine. Combined with newfound revelations around patience and proofing (more like what I call "duh-piphanies"), I've been able to create very nice loaves without commercial yeast. Which has been a goal of mine from the beginning, inspired by the wonderful breads I see here from experienced folks and newbies alike. 

Another goal has been to reduce the "tyrrany of the bread" on my family schedule. So I've been pushing proof times for both bulk and final proofs to see what happens. Trying to get the bread to work around MY schedule, instead of vice-versa. 

For this bake, I used G Snyder's formula with this process:

Monday night: made the levain, left at room temp 11 hours (NB - my starter is 100% hydration)

Tuesday morning: made the dough; 30 min autolyse, 45 minute room temp proof, then in the fridge for 11 hours.

Tuesday night: out of fridge, 1 hr room temp, then pre shape and shape; 1 hour at room temp then in the fridge for 22 hours

Wednesday night: out of fridge, 1 hr room temp, then slash and bake in 500F preheated oven, lowered to 475F, covered for 20 mins and uncovered for 25 mins.

 Reminds me again how awesome this site is. Thanks to all who share their experience, advice and passion. 

Top: The boule

Bottom: A sloppy turkey and jack w/mayo and dijon on seeded sourdough

Made a modified sourdough (with 1/8 tsp active dry yeast for timing) with toasted sesame, poppy and sunflower seeds. Came out great. Thanks to TFL'er Jay and the "The Basic Problem with my sourdough" thread contributors for guidance on my starter.

Formula

Levain:

102 g KAF AP

108 G water

43 g 100% hydration starter

5 g Rye

Fermented overnight (12 hrs minimum) at room temp.

Final dough:

417 g KAP AP

100 g Whole Wheat flour

310 g water

All of the levain (258 g)

1/8 tsp active dry yeast

13 g salt

20 g each sunflower, poppy and sesame seeds, toasted and cooled

Comes out to ~70% hydration, but feels wetter to me.

Mix all but salt, seeds and yeast. Autolyses 1 hr. Add salt, seeds (cooled) and yeast. Knead 10-12 minutes until moderately developed. Ferment 2-3 hours w/2 S&Fs.

Divide and preshape for 2 boules. Rest 20-25 minutes. Shape as boules. Proof for 90-120 minutes (watch the dough, not the clock ;-)).

Preheat oven 500F for 30 last 30 minutes of proof. 

Bake in cast iron covered dutch oven 20 mins covered; 20 minutes uncovered until 190F internal. (I use a parchment paper "sling" to load the dough, which I remove for the last 10 minutes.)

Built off a "Country Semi-sourdough" yeasted bread, I made this bread on Saturday. 

Formula:

496G KAF AP

339g H2O

138g 100% Starter

31g Rye

31g Whole wheat

12 g salt

2.25 g active dry yeast

85g manchego cheese cubed

85g oz parmesan grated

50 sun-dried tomatoes

Mix H2O, starter and flours

Autolyse for 1 hour

Add salt and yeast

Knead for about 3-5 mins

Add in cheeses and tomatoes, adding flour as needed

knead for 10 mins

Bulk proof 1.5 hours with S&F @ 30 and 60 mins

pre-shape and rest for 15 mins

shape and into bannetons for 1 hour

Preheat to 500F

Sprinkle 1 oz grated manchego on top

Bake in dutch oven 20 mins covered at 475F, 25 mins uncovered @ 475 F

Loaf weighed 1.2 kilogram before baking. Crumb was finer than usual, but very soft and very flavorful. Great taste and texture. Start to finish in 4 hours.

Made Floyd M's Honey Whole Wheat today. For the 1 hour whole wheat soak, I used 9 oz KAF White Whole wheat, 3 oz Hodgson's Whole Wheat, and 4 oz Bob's Red Mill Spelt. I use active dry yeast activated in 3 Tbs water. ~10 oz. total KAF bread flour. Added 1/3 C roasted unsalted sunflower seeds and 2 Tbs canola oil. Having read through the comments, I heeded Jmonkey's and others advice and did 2 stretches at 30 and 60 mins of the total 90 minute bulk proof. 75 minutes in the pans (afraid of overproofing with 3 Tsp of yeast), then 45 minutes in preheated 375 oven.

The crumb is ragged because it cooled for a grand total of 3 minutes before our son had a sandwich emergency brought on by a Chemistry II quiz! Tastes delicious! Thanks Floyd and everyone!

My 100% Hydration starter has been realy active lately, so I've made a few loaves using just it, no commercial yeast. Thanks to all the help available here, and practice, they're getting better and better. Here are today's loaves. Unfortunately, I got distracted, and forgot to turn the oven down after 20 mins. SO they're a tad underdone inside. But delicious.

Made a liquid levain the morning before. Fermented it all day. Made the dough that night. Room temp ferment for 3 hours at about 67. (Temp outside here near Boston was 17 last night.) Overnight retard in the fridge. 1 hour room temp this morning. The shaped and proofed for 1.5 hours. baked in cast iron for 20 w/lid, 20 w/o. All at 500 F...ahem. 

Made this today in anticipation of turkey sandwiches over the next few days. From Breadtopia http://www.breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/

White whole wheat, rye, spelt, KA AP. 

I did a 3-day process: 12 hour overnight first proof, 24-hour cold retard, and 4.5 hour final proof. Baked in my combo cooker, 20 mins covered, 25 uncovered @485F with a preheat.

Have to wait to open it. But it smells incredible! 

Next up: Pumpkin bread pudding, dinner rolls, and cornbread-apple sausage stuffing. 

Sent from my iPad  

Knowing I'd work at home today (Wednesday) I made a preferment Tuesday morning: 

100 G KA Bread flour

100 G 100% hydration starter

60 g water

Tuesday night I made the dough:

All of the preferment

400 g KA all purpose

35 g rye

35 g oat flour

15 g salt

44o g water

30 min autolyse

Was really wet, so added flour until I could get some development. (Think I need to learn how to calculate the starter into the final %s. Was aiming for 68-70% hydration)

15 minutes kneading

1.5 hour proof, with S&F at 30 and 60

Pre-shape, rest and shape, and into the fridge overnight.

1.5 hours at room temp this morning

Baked w/preheat at 475 for 15 with steam, 30 without (for the badly-shaped batard) and in the combo cooker for the boule.

Pretty standard, delicious sourdough. My shaping skills have plateaued at a very low level, so need to work on those. 

Baked these today from Bread Cetera. Very nice taste, and fun to make. Overnight levain, 20 min autolyse, 1 hr bulk ferment, 30 min rest, fold, slurry, cut, stack, 1.5 hr proof. Baked on its side 15 minutes @ 450F w/steam; bake w/o steam 25 min. 

Our friends from Israel (wife) and Idaho (husband) joined us for a bike ride today as temperatures in New England hit 80F! 

So challah was on the menu. I used the Honey Whole Wheat from the front page. Came out wonderful. Perfect compliment to grilled salmon with garlic chive butter; steak tips with Santa Maria Seasoning; tomato, cucumber feta salad; and grilled eggplant from the garden. We ate the sesame seed version and sent the poppy seeded one home with our friends.  She said it looked like the challah you get in Jerusalem from the home-style bakeries. She's being nice, I know, but I took it as a compliment!

Baked a version of Lumos' Swiss/Bernese Oberland today. I think hydration was a little too high, and gluten not developed enough. Still happy with my progress. And tastes great!

2.5 hrs w/ 2 S&F bulk ferment

14 hr cold retard

3 hr final proof

20 minutes in combo cooker in non-preheated 550F oven. Uncovered and cooked 35 minutes at 475F.

And it's already gone for lunch!