PY's blog

this is my first attempt at the tartine country bread. Used my own starter to make the leaven. I autolysed for 2 hours, just because it fit my schedule and did the folds as instructed but felt that somehow the more folds/turns i did the wetter the dough became. No idea why. Maybe being in a humid tropical country didnt call for the extra water the recipe called for when incorporating the salt after the autolyse. 

I had trouble pre shaping and shaping so i had fiddled with the shaping perhaps too much. Knowing it wil not hold up its shape after final proof, i decided to chuck it into the fridge for final proof for 3.5 hours.

baked in a dutch oven, had problems transferring into the hot dutch oven. So decided to only score the dough after the transfer. Otherwise it wouldnt have maintained the scoring with so much fiddling. Then had difficulty scoring the dough while it had been transferred into the dutch oven for fear of burning my fingers!

but the dough and i survived. Crumb was highly gelatinised, quite surprised as the dough wasnt fermented overnight. Taste was creamy and the freshly milled whole wheat taste really came through with a nice honey-ish aroma (another surprise considering how little whole wheat there was in the recipe)

im kinda liking this bread!

another from hamelman's Bread. I'm finally getting the hang of my oven temperature and the proofing. This is evident from the bloom that i never use to get! 

built my starter for 16 hours as i wasnt getting much action after 12 hours...and it suddenly got bubbly at 16th hour. Would have liked to retard for final proof but timing was off so it only sat in the fridge for 3 hours.

finally I manage to bake something that looks like this! Used Hamelman's wholewheat multigrain formula.

instead of 2 hour bulk fermentation I did 1 hour and retarded for 2.5 hours (just because I had to go out for errands) and final  proof for 1 hour.

as i couldnt turn off the top element of my oven without activating the fan, i placed a sheet of aluminium foil on top of the dough while baking with the usual steam. Removed the foil after 20 minutes and the result was fantastic. So happy!

Decided to make 2 loaves. Doubled the starter to make the levain (this fermented for 13 hours) and reduced 1/3 of the yeast in the recipe. Also went for a lighter bake. Happy with the results 

Been lacking behind posting but not baking. All breads from Jeffrey Hamelman's book, "Bread"

1. Norwich sourdough with increased whole wheat (wheat only) with added oat groats and honey - very happy with oven spring

2. Norwich sourdough with increased whole wheat (mixture of rye and wheat) - not very happy with oven spring

3. Norwich sourdough with increased whole wheat (wheat only) using a dutch oven - not very happy with oven spring

4. Deli Rye - very happy with texture, great for sandwiches

norwich sourdough with increased whole wheat. I also added some soaked oat groats n 1 tbs of honey for some bite n slight sweetness.

But not quite near dabrownman's more than 15 less than 30 breads!

25% rye 12.5% wholewheat, 62.5% bread flour, 1.8% salt, 8% starter made into 30% preferment, 60% hydration, some dried cranberries and golden flaxseed meal.

45 mins autolyse, 2.5 hours bulk with 2 sets of folds and turns, final proofing 1 hour on counter, 4 hours retard in fridge and direct into oven. 225c with steam for 15 mins and 210c for 25 mins.

very happy with the oven spring

formula:-

70% bread flour

30% freshly milled wholewheat flour

1.8% salt

30% starter (over 3 builds)

60% hydration

dried longan rehydrated with hot water, liquid from rehydration then used to make up 60% hydration as per above

mix everything save for the salt until a shaggy mess

autolyse 30 mins

add salt, knead for 5 mins rest 5 mins knead another 5 mins

bulk ferment 2.5 hours with 3 folds at 45 mins interval. I added the rehydrated longans at my last fold

pre shape and bench 10 mins

shape and place in banneton

proofed for 1 hour (temp 29C)

baked at 220C for 13 mins with steam and 200C without steam for 30 mins

cant wait to taste! 

And some sourdough chorizo pizzas

Made some adaptations. Subbed the flaxseed with poppy and chia seeds and halved the portion. Because chia is so thirsty, i did not half the water for the soaker instead just cut it about 25%

my preferment looked a bit lethargic so bulk fermented for 3.5 hours and proofed for 5 hours. Although the weather was probably around 29-30C it did not overproof with 5 hours.

the taste was excellent considering it had a total of 92% BF and only 8% rye! Colour of crumb looked as though it has 30% rye....very pleased

Made some changes from last week's attemp by retarding the dough for 15 hours and out in room temp for 1 hour. baked with steam for first 15 minutes and without for the remaining 25 minutes at 230.

think i got better oven spring compared to last week. But still on the quest for that elusive bloom!