Pain au Levain from Local Breads
I am happy to have found a bread that my wife and I agree upon. I prefer hearty flavors (that stand up to obscene amounts of toppings and sauce), whereas she prefers tender white breads. It's important to find this balance given that the bread I bake is the bread we're both stuck with until I bake a new batch.
I picked up a copy of Local Breads from the Library. I recently came back from living in Europe and have been profoundly disappointed with the quality of breads in my part of the US. I grabbed this book in hopes of finding something (anything!) resembling the breads I enjoyed while living abroad. I'm still a novice baker, so I found the first chapter of this book to be pretty informative. Leader directly contradicts a few of the things I've read from equally respectable bread-makers, but I unfortunately cannot remember specific points.
The first bread my wife wanted was Pain au Levain. Obtaining this book coincided with receiving a shipment of Graham and Pumpernickel flours from Hodgson Mills. I was happy to try these flours by substituting them for the whole wheat and rye flours called for by Leader.
The dough seemed to take an extraordinarily long time to knead. This may have stemmed from my instinct to knead out the bits of coarse flour, or perhaps it is because my sourdough starter seems to produce ridiculously sticky dough (I have no idea if this is normal). The dough was still sticky after 20 minutes of rigorous dough slapping (and two resting periods!). It eventually developed a grand gluten structure, stretching easily into an almost-clear windowpane. The "sticky sourdough" issue lasted until baking time; the dough even stuck to my finger when I poked it to see how it was coming along. I should note that I had this issue with my last batch of sourdough. It made the dough very difficult to shape and score. I blame the flatness of my batards on my inability to get a very good surface tension.
The flavor of this bread is fantastic. The graham flour gave it a nice sweet/nutty flavor. This flavor, however, is perhaps a little too pronounced in the crust. The coarse flours give it a nice, pleasant texture and an appealing look.
The problem with this bread is the crust. I am not one to shy away from good hearty chewing. I like to know that I'm eating. I'd like to say I have a jaw that could chew through tin cans, but luckily I haven't tried. This crust, however, is beyond me. I baked the bread a little too long, but I don't think it was so long as to produce such a thick crust. I'm wondering if the problem stems from my sticky sourdough issues. The other problem with this bread is that the graham flour is too pronounced in the crust. I have a random feeling that this might actually be due to over-baking.
At any rate, this is the result of following Leader's formula (including the cast iron skillet and ice cubes, which I won't do again), but substituting whole wheat flour for graham flour and pumpernickel for rye flour.
Is it common for sourdough to be sticky? It seems to be the norm with my starter. Would the sticky dough contribute to a thick crust, or did I simply bake this bread too long? I have a poor oven with a whopping 75F error in temperature (it changes each day). This makes it nearly impossible to predict baking times.
Comments
manicbovine,
Luckily, the bovines I grew up with weren't particularly manic...
Regarding Mr. Leader's Pain au Levain: I made this same bread last Saturday. It is a bit sticky, so I used the slap and fold method of kneading. After a couple of minutes of that treatment, it had more of a tacky, rather than sticky, character. For the final shaping, I was able to use a light dusting of flour on part of the work surface that prevented it from sticking to the counter top.
Since our flours are different (I'm presently in South Africa), we are apt to see some variations in dough behavior at identical hydration levels. It may be that your flour is less absorptive than the stuff Mr. Leader uses and your dough is consequently stickier than his. However, the stickiness you are describing could also be caused by your starter if the acid-producing bacteria are disproportionately high in relationship to the yeast. If the former, a little less water or a little more flour in the dough should rectify matters. If the latter, then you may want to give your starter a series of discard/feed cycles at room temperature (maybe spiked with a little bit of rye) until it stops exhibiting excessive stickiness.
My guess is that you are encountering an absorption/hydration issue. The next time you make the bread with this flour combination, give the flour and water an extended autolyse, upwards of an hour and maybe more, to permit the bran in the graham and pumpernickel flour more time to absorb the water and soften. Then mix in the levain and salt (you did remember the salt, didn't you? leaving it out can make for sticky dough) so that they are thoroughly incorporated. After mixing, do the slap and fold move for just a minute or two; long enough to see that the dough is starting to smooth out but not so long that it starts tearing. The subsequent stretch and folds (letter style) that the book suggests should yield a smooth and supple dough, even though it will still be somewhat tacky.
Then you are on to shaping and baking. Not much I can tell you there, other than to watch some helpful videos to see the techniques and then practice them. Your crumb looks good, so you were apparently gentle with your shaping. Your bread doesn't look over-baked in the photos. The crust doesn't appear to be particularly dark or thick. From what you say about the toughness, I'm wondering if your oven is actually at the temperature that the controls are indicating. If it isn't as hot as you want it to be, it may not be driving off enought moisture, which could toughen the crust. How are you steaming the oven? That has a bearing on crust texture, too.
I hope some of this helps.
Paul
Manicbovine,
Paul gave you a thoughtful response that covered just about everything. The one thing I would add, ok, two things. First is the feeding schedule of the starter. If your starter is chronically underfed, it will get very sticky. When you mix the dough, it will also be sticky. So, to be sure you are not underfeeding, make sure you refresh your starter by at least 3 or 4 times the amount of old starter. That means if you dump all but 50 grams, the refreshment I use would be 100g of water and 100g of flour. That represents a build of 4 times the original amount.If the starter is not healthy and active, the dough will not be either.
The last thing is the Graham flour. Graham is very soft and I find it tends to be sticky by its self.
BTW, I think your bread looks great! It would be hard to improve on that.
Eric
This could explain a lot given that I just refresh it by just twice the amount of old starter.
Thank you! This is extremely helpful.
I will try the extended autolyse on the next batch of bread. I also wonder if the sourdough may be a little too acidic, since I've had this sticky-dough issue primarily with sourdough.
Why won't you do the ice cubes and cast iron skillet again? I do it all the time.
I came across as overly negative about ice in the cast iron skillet. It's just that it didn't seem to produce a result better or worse than the numerous other steaming methods I've tried.