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Hi, for this bake I decided to completely change up my process. I did this in part to fit my schedule, since I decided to make the dough late at night on a Friday, and in part to try a longer bulk ferment and baking the loaf straight from the fridge. Oven spring wasn't as strong as in my other bakes, but it might've been due to 1. a sleepy starter, 2. an overly long bulk ferment, 3. shaping and proofing in a bowl as boule, instead of making a long batard.

Ingredients

240 g KAF AP flour
30 g KAF WW flour
30 g Arrowhead Rye flour
200 g water
6 g salt (1.5% salt, lowered to adjust for salinity from olives)
0.5 g IDY (roughly a pinch, to make up for the slow starter)
70 g starter (fed 8 hours prior with 3:1:4 AP:WW:water)

Soaker

10 g oatmeal
10 g flax
10 g bran
26 g hot water (78% total hydration)

Levain build

50 g starter (100% hydration, fed 1:1 starter to feed 8 hours ago)
10 g WW flour
10 g Rye flour
20 g water

Steps

1. Feed starter, autolyse flour and water, autolyse for 1 hr
2. Fold in starter, salt, and soaker, rest for 15 minutes
3. 100 french folds
4. 5 sets of S&F in 30-minute intervals
5. Bulk ferment for 5 hours at 66˚F (I decided to go to sleep, this was 1am- 6am)
6. Shape then proof for another 40 minutes
7. Cold ferment for 10 hours
8. Preheat DO and oven to 500 F, line bottom of DO with foil, leaving one corner folded up
9. Score and load loaf with floured baking paper straight from the fridge
10. Slip 3 cubes of ice into DO, ideally under the folded-up corner of foil
11. Bake at 475 F, covered, for 25 mins
12. Bake at 425 F with convection, uncovered, for another 20 mins

This didn't turn out as good as the last one, even though I used almost the same process. Differences:

- Starter refreshed night before (as opposed to a few days before)
- Slightly shorter final proof (~2 hrs)
- Didn't use as much baking paper - this may have contributed to less rise

Loaf 6
250g white flour, 250g wholegrain wheat flour.
80% hydration
15% starter
2% salt

Starter: Refreshed it with stoneground white flour the night before. 

In the morning, did 1 hour autolyse, then mixed in starter & salt. 5 stretch & folds over 2 hours, then a bulk ferment at room temp for about 6-7 hours.

No pre-shape. Shaped into a round, then,

proofed in a glass bowl, covered with a plastic bag, overnight in fridge for about 12 hours. 

When flipped over, the topside of the dough was sticky and had lost its shape. It made it difficult to slash. I wonder whether I should do a quick 'tuck under' shaping before the next bake to increase tension.

Rather than using baking paper all over, I just used it to drop it into the dutch oven, but this meant that the dough lost its shape and didn't rise as much in the oven. I think this d. oven is a bit small.

Baked in dutch oven at ~230c for 20 mins covered, 30 mins uncovered. Let cool for a day, then re-heated before cutting open.

Result: A decent crumb, though felt a little dry (maybe because I waited a day?) Still better than attempts before number 6, but not as good as number 6.

I have not exhausted the concept of Pain de Campagne. In fact, it is becoming clear that I have not even started to explore the topic. The more I bake big loaves, the better I like them. This is slightly acid, balanced with some sweetness with a nice caramel note and wheat undertones.

This is a 3.3 lb. loaf that is mostly whole wheat with some sprouted rye and sprouted spelt (~5%??)

It was mixed in the 5 qt.  stand mixer that I bought in 1980.

300 grams of sourdough active starter in the kettle, with a good splash of water, mixed into a batter, and left covered for 2 hours.  Another splash of water, more flour, mixing and fermenting. The rest of the 700 ml of water, the rest of the kilo of flour, 20 grams of salt, mixed to a shaggy dough, let sit a couple of hours, then mixed to a smooth dough, and allowed to ferment at 65F for 6 hours.  Round up, bench rest, shape, and into a cloth lined colander set in the frig. overnight. It sat on the counter while the bake stone heated.  The loaf was glazed with egg white and water. A piece of parchment made transfer from the peel to the 400F bake stone easy. The bread went in 10 minutes after oven temp was 400F, so the stone was not fully heated. The last 15 minutes of baking were at 375F convection.  The loaf was cut after about half an hour on the cooling rack. The bread board is 7.5” wide.

Soft White Sourdough Bread

First experiment in bread machine.

Cuisinart. Whole Wheat cycle, 4-hr 38-min. Dark Crust.

 Adapted from KAF original recipe:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/bread-machine-sourdough-bread-recipe

Cold 40s-degF. Cloudy w/ drizzle.

Indoor temp 69/70-degF. 52 RHumidity.

Ingredients

113-g tepid Distilled* Water

7-g Red Star Active Dry Yeast

1 toothpick dip Briess Sorghum Syrup

 454-g Homemade GF Sourdough castoff

 372-g KAF GF Measure-for-Measure

8-g Hodgeson Mill Buttermilk Powder

 57-g tepid Distilled Water

 3-g SF Salt Co. French Grey Sea Salt

 13-g 4th & Heart Ghee warmed to liquid

Measure water & yeast into scale measuring bowl. Add 1/2 toothpickful sorghum syrup. Stir to mix. Pour into bread machine baking tin. Allow yeast to become frothy.

Measure sourdough & stir into frothy yeast.

Measure M4M & buttermilk powder. Stir well & add to yeasty sourdough.

 Set tin into machine body. Lock in place. Close lid. 

Select Whole Wheat, Dark Crust. Press Start/Stop.

Machine will start a warming cycle before kneading cycle.

At beg kneading cycle, open lid. Gently scrape & fold forming dough. Add additional water from the 57-g reserve, 1-T at a time if dough is too dry w/ clumps not incorporating.

 Close lid & allow machine to work.

At beg of next kneading cycle, open lid. Sprinkle salt onto dough. Gently pinch salt into dough as machine kneads. Close lid & allow machine to work.

At beg of final kneading cycle (machine will beep an alert), open lid. Check dough’s formation & feel. Dough will feel warm, soft & pliable. A little sticky is fine, too for GF dough.

Remove paddle at end of this kneading cycle. Gently smooth dough & make sure it’s formed a loaf. Add ghee by drizzling a little around each corner. Drizzle remaining over dough top. Close lid & allow machine to work. It will start baking cycle after this last rise.

When baking cycle ends, use a digital probe thermometer to check loaf’s internal temp. 210-degF. Remove tin from oven & cool at least 1-hr... if possible *grin*

Using Angelica Nelson’s method here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62324/whole-grain-rice-and-buckwheat-gluten-free-bread-no-starch-added

Notes

• Homemade sourdough made with 1/2 potato flakes & 1/2 KAF M4M with 1 Floristor probiotic capsule broken open & sprinkled over slurry. Tended & ripened over 7-days.
• This was not fully workable ripened sourdough. Used amounts normally cast off during additional feeding.
  
• So excited making this first loaf of tasty, tangy, crispy & tender GF bread! In a bread machine even.

I have recently become obsessed with making taller, fluffier pancakes. I didn't used to see the point of pancakes, but it is such a good way of using up sourdough discard and making the mornings more relaxing.

So far, I have tried several 'best fluffy pancakes' recipes, and made several by eye.

Things I have noticed:

• using fresh milk vs. water and milk/buttermilk powder makes no discernible difference
• all the flour content can come from sourdough discard, there is no need to use fresh flour in terms of flavor or rise
• it's more difficult to make them tender with fresh flour as I tend to overmix the batter
• sunflower oil is easier than melted butter because it incorporates w/o a thought, and the flavor of the sourdough, vanilla and butter on top makes using butter in the batter no real gain
• what seems like way too much baking powder and soda will help rise but won't affect the flavor of the final product (but don't lick the batter...)
• a high egg concentration can give a sort of silky, pudding-like texture that I find really pleasant, but probably most people will find this too eggy
• separating the eggs and beating the whites makes them much fluffier
• definitely definitely melt some butter and jam or butter and honey to pour on top

So, my attempts have led to some improvement, but I still haven't accomplished my goal! No matter how tall and fluffy my pancake batter is, once I flip it, it always deflates.

I have tried using a lower temperature and letting the surface 'set' so it gets a matte appearance before flipping, but to no avail. They simply start falling before I flip.

I've also tried making them with very small or very large diameters, and stacking extra batter on top after they start to set, but neither seems to make any difference.

Do you agree with my observations, or do you think I have no tastebuds?

Any advice on taller, fluffier, silkier pancakes?

Can you diagnose any problems based on my picture?

My most recent recipe:

• 120 g sourdough discard (which I have in a large jar that I continually add to and take from but never empty)
• 70 g water
• 15 g sunflower oil (it's basically flavorless, I just use it as an all-purpose oil)
• 2 medium-large pasture raised eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp confectioner's sugar
• 2 tb buttermilk powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Put the griddle on the lowest flame. Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff. Refrigerate.
2. Dissolve the starter into the oil, yolk, and water. Whisk the dried buttermilk with leavening and salt.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then fold in the meringue. The batter gets very tall after doing this.
4. Butter the griddle (for getting a nice golden crust, they won't stick regardless) and pour about a 1/4 cup of batter in a spiralling motion. When the top is covered in burst bubbles, and the bottom is golden-brown, flip.

I had made a tasty carrot bread with spices before and wanted to do the same, but this time I thought I'd make two separate doughs and laminate them together. I did one white dough autolysed with carrot juice and a mostly whole grain dough autolysed with water.  After autolyse, I added about 100g of shredded carrot to the carrot dough.

I added cumin/chipotle powder/coriander to one loaf during lamination and I added raisins and toasted walnuts to the other. 

These loaves didn't look like much after the bake and I was disappointed, but I'm very happy with the crumb and taste. I think this is one of the better breads I've made given that it's about 40% whole grain. The crumb is extremely soft!

20% starter (or 10% pre-fermented flour) 

Started hydration at 80% and added a bit of water along the way 

This is a redo of arecipe from last October with a few changes; I used spelt flour and cranberries this time as well as ale for part of the liquid. Sleeping Giant Brewery is local and this particular ale won gold at the 2013 Canadian  Brewing Awards. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

300 g freshly milled Spelt (300 g Spelt berries)

465 g filtered water

235 g Sleeping Giant Brewery Beaver Duck Ale

30 g yogurt 

22 g salt

200 g spent beer malted grains (Sleeping Giant Brewery)

200 g cranberries 

250 g of 3 stage 100% hydration levain (procedure below)

Wholegrain flour as well as unbleached flour to feed the levain

Two mornings before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of wholegrain flour as well as 50g of strong baker’s flour. Let rise until doubled (about 6 hours). 

2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Spelt berries on the finest setting of your mill or measure out ready bought whole grain Spelt flour if you don’t mill your own.

2. Place the required amount of the Spelt flour in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Measure the spent grains and cranberries. Mix together and refrigerate.

Dough making day:

1. When ready to make the dough, take the spent grains/cranberry mixture and the levain out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

2. Using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flours, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes.  

4. Add the spent grains and cranberries to the mixing bowl, and mix on speed 2 until they are evenly distributed. This will take a couple of minutes. 

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of stretches and folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 sets of sleepy ferret folds (coil folds) at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. This particular dough rose quite quickly and was ready 45 minutes after the last coil fold. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~800 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Tada! 😊

While I have Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, I don’t often bake from it. I'll admit to being put off by some of his notions but that doesn’t mean I should deprive myself of good bread.  So, I decided to have another look when I needed to bake a couple of weekends ago. 

After poring through the recipes, I settled on the Overnight Country Brown.  It was appetizing and I had the time to devote to it.  But, before launching, I had a very thorough read to see what Mr. Forkish says about temperatures.  After seeing repeated mentions of room temperature, I found his definition buried deep in a discussion about desired dough temperature.  According to Mr. Forkish, room temperature is 71F.  That explains why there are so many frustrated FWSY bakers, most of whom probably expect room temperature to be in the mid-70s.  

Since my kitchen temperature during Kansas winters is typically in the 67-69F range, I felt I had a decent shot at using the formula's timings without over-fermenting the dough.  

My first departure from the formula was to make 250g of levain, not the full kilogram that Ken calls for.  The final dough only requires 218g.  Remember me mentioning that some of his notions are rather off-putting?  Making and discarding massively excessive quantities of levain is one of those.  

The levain was eventually ready a little after 5:00, so that was when I assembled the final dough; almost exactly as instructed.  The deviations were an additional 50g each of freshly milled barley and rye flour, along with 50g of flax meal; hence the “+” in the title of the post.  I backed down the amount of bread flour by an equivalent amount to keep the hydration in balance.  

After mixing in the salt, the dough was treated to four or five minutes of slap and folds until I could see that the gluten was moderately developed.  It was rested for 30 minutes and then given a round of stretch and folds in the bowl.  After three additional rounds of stretch and folds, each at 30-minute intervals, the dough had plenty of body even though it was still quite sticky.    

The dough was left to ferment for 15 hours.  At the end of bulk fermentation, the dough was absolutely beautiful.  It was 2.5 to 3 times its original volume, silky, and still sticky.  

I elected to divide the dough into two loaves.  Each was shaped into a tight boule and deposited, seam side down, into bannetons that were liberally coated with rice flour.  

While the loaves fermented (slowly), I prepped the oven for baking by placing a baking stone on the center shelf and a steam pan on the lower shelf.  While I salute those who use Dutch ovens, I am more comfortable working without them.  Based on what came out of the oven, my final deviation from Mr. Forkish's instructions was quite successful.  

The seams opened up to allow plenty of oven spring.  There was some fissuring along the sides of the loaves but not enough to cause problems.  


While the loaves felt light for their size, the crumb was only moderately open and fairly even in texture.  This might be the result of the slap and folds after the initial mix.  In any event, the crumb was perfect for the bread's intended purpose: sandwiches.  It also worked well as toast.  

The bread's flavor was outstanding.  Lots of roasted nuts and caramel notes from the crust, with the crumb contributing a creamy blend of grains and mild acidity.  It was thoroughly enjoyable.  

This is definitely worth a repeat, although it may be more of a challenge when things move faster in warmer temperatures.  

Paul

Back to my favourite sweet & savoury combo.

Tarragon Orange Peel Edam Cheese SD

Sift out the bran from dough flour, reserve 32 g for the leaven. Soak the rest, if any, in equal amount of water taken from dough ingredients. 

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until ready, about 5 hours (21.5°C). Roughly combine all dough ingredients. Ferment for a total of 3.5 hours. Construct 2 rounds of 3 minute Rubaud mixing at the 20 and 40 minute mark. Fold in the cheese and orange peel by a set of lamination at the 50 minute mark. After the bulk fermentation, shape the dough then put in into a banneton directly. Retard in the fridge for 9 hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge 1 hour before baking. Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F. Score and spritz the dough. Bake at 250°C/482°F with steam for 20 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let it cool for a minimum of 2 hours before slicing.

As you can see from the crumb, the bread was not proofed to the optimal level. It was a bit tough to judge the degree of fermentation with so many add-ins. Thankfully the melty cheese pockets create an illusion of holey bread :)

Tarragon is my most used spice recently. I like to add a generous pinch to most dishes for a sweet, vanilla touch. Here it pairs wonderfully with the citrusy candied peel and the salty cheese. Together with the nutty quinoa and malty emmer, they produce quite an umami loaf.   

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Satay chicken, coconut paniyaram & miso eggplants with leek and tomatoes, aka one of the weirdest combos ever

Pressured cooked lamb shank curry with SD WG naan

Watercress & pork dumplings with Chinese lemon chicken

Garlicky rotelle with kipper, snow peas & sun-dried tomatoes

Challah French toast with rajma (red kidney bean curry). Talk about multicultural dishes!

Korean-style mixed rice with fermented napa cabbage & cheddar, and sesame oil stir fried seafood & onion

Braised vegetables & glass noodles in fermented red bean curd (南乳齋). The Chinese New Year dish from my childhood memory

Lamb & cauliflower toacos. No words needed

Sheng jian carrot pork bao, pan-fried mochi with eggs & pickled mustard greens, Homemade noodles with a sweet & sour sesame sauce, pressure cooked Zhengjiang style ribs (yes, those aren't charcoal...), and mixed vegetables in broth

Black sesame SD

30% Kamut 2% matcha, homemade mochi-stuffed SD bagels

Wanted to really get serious about baking, so followed perfect loaf's weekday sourdough recipe (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/simple-weekday-sourdough-bread/).

Here are the results!! Very very satisfied :)

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