Pierre-Louis's blog

I don’t have a proper oven, In my previous blog posts I would go to my relatives to bake which is not ideal, anyway I found that using a pan loaf is a great way to bake in a “toaster oven”. You also get even slices and it’s easier to store and toast.

My pan is 19.7cm x 10.6cm x 11cm.

First I tried a 340g loaf (300g + the ~40g in the starter) It’s a cute loaf (image above) but you can fit more in there.

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This is the final version of my sourdough loaf. It lacks even browning because of the oven but it’s good. Here is the formula :

For the starter :

I take my stiff starter mother from the fridge and refresh it. I keep 5 grams and add 25g of flour and 15 grams of water. 6 hours later I make the above wet starter that will go in the dough and the mother goes back to the fridge.

As for the process it goes as follows :

I don’t do an autolyse although I could, I mix everything at once and knead for 10-15 minutes. I knead on the counter picking the dough and putting it down, stretching it a bit every time, I take care not to break the gluten strands, I don’t stretch too hard or squish it.

For the shaping I don’t do a bench rest, I just extend the dough and fold it before letting it proof in the pan.

If you, like me, have a toaster oven I suggest baking at 220° bottom heat - 150° top heat for 20 minutes with the cover before removing the cover and baking for 10 more minutes with the top heat at 220°.

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And here is the seed and nut version :

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It's the same recipe but with 100g of fillings. For this one I soak the fillings overnight, 40g of walnuts, 25g of sunflower seeds, 25g of pumpkin seeds and 10g of black sesame seeds. All toasted.

After mixing I give a fold 15 minutes later. Then I incorporate the seeds via lamination.

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My french flour run out so I baked these with Bob's red mill flour. Here is my schedule :

Bulk rise is 5 hours total. I planned on doing 6 hours but it seemed ready after 5. Going by feels pays off as those are the best looking loaves I ever did. Cold proofed 18 hours, now that's a bit too much for me. The bread is sour. Not in a bad way, but I prefer when it's not as sour. Never proofed so long before but I couldn't bake earlier because of my schedule. I baked them in a dutch oven and added a bit of hot water before closing the lid. My (french) dad said that little bubbles on the bread point to too much steam but I like the bubbles.

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Same method as here but bumped the hydration up to 70%. It's getting hot here so I cut the bulk rise to 5 hours. Well it was still too much, by the time I got to shaping, the dough was sticky and didn't hold shape. Didn't get as good an oven spring as last time. Still very pleased with the result, especially the crumb.

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I'm still playing around with the recipe trying to get a good loaf out of some t65 and t-80 french flour.

Formula :

Method :

One hour autolyse, starter incorporated 6 hour after being assembled, slap and fold and then 6 hours bulk proof followed by 12 hours retard in the fridge. At the beginning of the bulk rise I cut the dough in half and then I laminated the dough, a technique I learned from this video (full proof baking). I gave the dough 3 coil folds during bulk rise. At 65% the coil folds were hard to perform, I'm going to try at 70% next time. I have to practice shaping because those loafs proofed in oval bannetons but ended up looking like boules. Can't complain too much! The result is still nice. I wonder why the ears are so big. Maybe the coil folds were overkill. But above all I'm really happy with the taste and the texture of the crumb. Baked in a dutch oven at 260 celsius for 20 minutes covered and then half an hour uncovered. 

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In February I went to France and I got some organic flour and some starter from my dad that he made with fermented honey. I brought it over to Taiwan where I live using the method I found on the perfect loaf.

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After waking the starter up it was time to get baking again.

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I had been baking for a few months using Bob’s red mill flour. Baking with a new flour proved to be a challenge because it was not behaving the same way at all.

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70% hydration loafs on the above, 75% on the bottom. Really happy with the crumb but not with the shape or the taste, overproofed both times and they ended up being too sour.

Finally yesterday I ended up with something I was almost happy with.

The recipe is 300g of t65 flour, 100g of t80 flour, 260g of water (65%) and 2% of salt.

I used a stiff starter (60% water, 5% scraps). I waited for 10 hours to put it in because it was cold. I used 100g which ends up being 13% of the total weight.

There was a one hour autolyse and then a 6 hours bulk rise before a 6 hours retard in the fridge. Given the result I’m not sure it’s quiet long enough a retard.

I mixed the ingredients and used a slap and fold technique to knead. Then I did a lamination and gave it 3 coil folds, every 45 minutes.

Here is the result :

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I’m happy with the taste, it’s sweet and it taste like yogurt, the crumb is a bit under developed so I think I will need to let it proof in the basket maybe one hour before putting it in the fridge next time.