The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hi all from the centre of Amsterdam

alefarendsen's picture
alefarendsen

Hi all from the centre of Amsterdam

Hello all,

have been lurking here on TFL for quite some time now and finally decided now that the loafs start to look somewhat better to start posting a bit here and there.

This here just came out of the oven (well, the cheese didn't; it's Toma from the Italian Alps, similar to Fontina, although it's taste is a bit less outspoken).

It's tartine-style with the following formula.

  • 300 grams starter (100%)
  • 1050 grams water @ 82F/28C
  • 100 grams grano duro tipo 0
  • 250 grams grano tenero tipo 2
  • 1100 grams grano tenero tipo 0
  • 50 grams whole rye

Mixed starter, water and flour and autolysed for 40 min (20C) followed by a bulk ferment that lasted 3 and a half hour with folds @ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 and 180 mins. Started folding too late because of a lengthy phone call... Bench rest of 20 to 25 minutes after pre-shaping, followed by shaping and retarding in the fridge for almost 8 hours. Baked in DO @ 245C for 20 minutes with lid on, 10 or so with lid off.

Improvements I think are:

  • Shaping. Mice won't be able to hide in it, but there are some big uneven holes
  • Scoring. Don't have a razor yet, so an ordinary knife will have to do the trick for now
  • Maybe baking a tad longer
  • I need to get some rice flour; the dough (76% hydration) stuck to the banneton that I just sprinkled with wheat flour. Rice flour is better right??
  • Any other suggestions???

Although we're back in Amsterdam for a few weeks now, I'm still baking with Italian flour that we took home after having spent about a year in the Italian Alps. It's here that I started baking bread enthusiastically. Getting fresh bread was quite an endeavour; our house was 20 minutes (on foot) from the nearest road (on a steep mountain trail) and then we still had 20 minutes in the car before the first bread shop would show up. And since we had nothing to do I figured baking bread was a nice way to spend some time.

We got our flour from Mulino Sobrino in the Barolo region, about 2 hours drive from where we lived, a trip well worth combining with tasting some excellent wines there. We're heading back to finish up our year-long stay in the Alps in a few weeks; I'm thinking about taking back an extra batch of flour; the tipo 2 flour I really like (a bit coarser than ordinary bread flour but not whole wheat).

At first I baked using a starter that I got from a friend that was supposed to be fed on buckwheat flour and honey. Using a recipe from our friends and some spelt and whole wheat flour that I took from Amsterdam we baked thick dense breads. Later I decided to do my own starter and this is what I'm still using, about 9 months later. I wasn't using any books per se, just TFL and other sites. But now I've starting reading Hamelman's Bread and just now I've baked my first few Tartine loafs. I have been baking a bit here and there with sprouted grains and other seeds and nuts but figured I'd better get my basics down first using some books and progress from there.

Here are two of the biggest fans of my bread (the other being my wife). They both literally devour it.

Here's to lots more posts on TFL and thanks everybody for being such a wonderful and inspirational community!

Alef

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

Lovely story, we're glad to have you join us! Your breads are beautiful and skillfully made, no doubt you'll want to bestow partial credit to your highly discriminating quality control team!

Beautiful photos, reminds me of reading, Heidi as a girl. Enjoy your travels and we'll watch for more posts.

Cathy

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Welcome to TFL and 

happy SD baking 

alefarendsen's picture
alefarendsen

I already thought when I wrote this that hydration was on the low side and that maybe I should check my notes. Your comment triggered me to double check things and in fact, it's not 61% at all... I had water at 875 grams where in fact it was 1125 plus the water from the starter.

So then the math turns out to be this:

  • Water = 1275 grams: 150 (from the starter) + 1050 (initial mix) + 75 (when adding salt)
  • Others = 1680: 150 (from the starter) + 1500 (final build) + 30 (salt)

1275 / 1680 = 76%

Alef

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

well done- enjoy:)