Carl's 1847
I had a really rough start trying to get wild yeast to colonize on everything from a bag of NoName All Purpose to grinding some wheat berries into a rough flour with a spice blender; I think I've tried every starter recipe out there including a few from books. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong so I sent off a SASE and cleaned the fridge of my other experiments when "Carl" arrived. Stuffed far in the back neither regions of my refrigerator was a ziplock of rye starter that was forgotten about, so I decided to try and revive that at the same time (I don't know what recipe I used, but its a very stiff starter, more like dough than batter) as Carl. I now have two starters and a kitchen that smells really nice on baking days. Flavour otoh still eludes me and will be working on how to bring out the tang.
I used the Alaskan sourdough recipe over on the Carl Griffith pages and divided the dough into three loaves (two boules and a loaf of cinnamon bread). I think I over proofed the loaves just a wee bit, but it's a bit hard for me to tell because I normally jump the gun and under-proof.
This time the loaves popped and crackled as they cooled on the rack.
The mouse holes are intentional. I haven't been deflating my dough after the initial mixing and have instead opted to use stretch and folds and a very gentle hand. I'm not sure what it is about this style of slowed down making/proofing/baking, but it makes for a wonderful grilled, or toasted, crumb.
I just wanted to thank everyone here who, without realizing it, has allowed me to pull loaves like these out of my oven. I've learnt a lot from this site.
And, if you think there's room for improvement let me know I'd appreciate the tips.
Comments
Nice bake. Looks like you're getting the hang of it.
Ian
Much better than some of my very first loaves which were sopping wet inside and weighed a ton. I just wish I could figure out how to make them taste ... hmm more of something. Carl tastes (and smells! Whoo!) like he went out and got sloshed at a distillery vs. my rye makes me want to pucker up from all the acetic acid, which is exactly what I want. I just haven't been able to figure out how to scale up the flavour ...
I'm probably going to focus on rye because I want heafty loaves I can really sink my teeth into and it turns out I'm in luck for rye berries, there's a flour mill close by that sells various berries and other bread making goodies.
really nice bread flux. Just beautiful inside and out!
To get that rye sour, I retard my rye sour levain in the fridge after a 12 hour 3 stage build on the counter and then also retard the dough in the fridge for 18 hours or so after the S&F's and a 1 1/2 ferment undisturbed on the counter. Its a 3 day process but little real work for a nice SD tang.
You are getting there, no doubt about it - Bake on.
You can do a search on Dave Snyder's blog or mine for the Greenstien Jewish Rye which uses a build similar to what DA is suggesting. I take my AP white starter and convert it over to a rye starter using the 3 step building method. If you already have a rye starter you can skip this step and go directly to "start" and build your final dough.
There are a ton of rye recipes from deli style which use a higher percentage of white flour, usually "All Clear" flour, as well as 100% rye breads and multi grain breads. It is amazing how many different ways there is to make good bread.
Happy baking!
Ian
Thanks dabrownman. I'll have to give that a try the next time. I'd like to spend some time fooling around with time/temperature because I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly. I guess I'll know it when I taste it. I've tried a preferment in the fridge with the starter, all the water and rye flour (I'm using Roger's Dark Rye) for a day then the next add everything else as per a Breadtopia recipe. It made a good bread, but it wasn't sour. The next one I tried was the same recipe, but this time I let it preferment on the counter which brought out the tang. Alas, that beautiful bread above was a bit of a fluke because for this time the top of the loaf was burnt by the heating element.
Ian, I saw a recipe that calls for chickpea flour, in the thread someone mentioned Socca ... I still haven't made the bread because I'm now trying as many regional variations on chickpea crepe as I can find and happily stuffing my face.
So many breads to try, so little time!