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Training Wheels Off! Sourdough!

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

Training Wheels Off! Sourdough!

I've now made this twice with consistency...along with the helpful, kindly advice from this forum... I hopefully am taking the training wheels off. Started yesterday with a small preferment begun with my rye starter and assembled into a sloppy, doughy mess to bulk ferment in the proofing box.

Four hours later and the dough had almost doubled in bulk, ready for the baskets.

The dough is getting a little easier each time to handle. After shaping and placing in the bannetons, it was into the fridge for an overnight retardation....this method works very well for me.

Baking was early the next day...I had promised hubby fresh bread for breakfast...I had to leave the house early for my monthly breakfast with my former co-workers.... hubby finished the final baking and then texted me a picture when the loaves came out to quote "baked to a golden perfection."  He was instructed to take its temperature...lol!

IMG_0762

The loaf on the left went in a little crooked but recovered quite well.  On the right is the signature t-rex slash that when turned upside is a "W."  Below is my recipe I developed for these loaves...with a little help from my friends.

IMG_0631 
Obligatory Crumb Shot

Sourdough Rye (Makes two loaves)

 Build #1:

10 gr. Rye
10 gr. Bread Flour
5 gr. Whole Wheat Flour
20 gr. Water

Mix together and leave in a warm spot to ferment for 12 hours. It should almost double in bulk.  I will note here that I have Rodney, my rye sour, so instead of Build #1, I use my already active sour, Rodney.  I take 100 grams and mix with 100 grams each of whole wheat flour and and water instead of Build #2. 

Build #2

All of Build #1
50 gr. Bread Flour
50 gr. Whole Wheat Flour
50 gr. Warm Water

Mix together and leave in a warm spot to ferment for 12+/- hours till almost double.

Final Dough

All of Build #2 (or 200 gr Rodney mix)
650 gr. Bread Flour
150 gr. Rye Flour
50 gr. Whole Wheat
600 gr. Warm Water
21 gr. Kosher or Sea Salt

Mix all the flours with 600 gr. of very (about 90 dF) warm water. Autolyse 20-30 minutes.  Sprinkle the salt and add 50 gr. of water. Mix well and stretch and fold.

Put in a warm place (I use my microwave with a measuring cup full of boiled water to get it toasty) and perform stretch and folds every 30 minutes for the first two hours. Bulk rise 6-12 hours or at least until double in volume. This time it only took about 4-5 hours...Rodney was very frisky.

Divide the dough and pre-shape....easier said than done but I keep practicing.

Lightly dust the top of the dough, cover with a towel and let rest for 20  to 30 minutes.

Final shape the dough and put into well floured bannetons or towel lined bowls. Place in plastic bags after lightly flouring the tops of the loaves and refrigerate for 6 – 12 hours.  

Pre-heat oven to 500 dF with the dutch oven inside. Remove the bannetons from the refrigerator, turn over the bannetons over the pre-heated dutch oven and let gravity do its thing.   I'm still trying to get them perfectly centered over the dutch ovens.  Slash the loaves, cover and reduce the heat to 475 dF.

Bake 20 minutes at 475 dF. Uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes until golden brown. The loaves are done when they reach an internal temperature of 200 dF plus/minus.

Enjoy!

Wendy
Your Adventuress-in-Baking

 

Comments

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

Very, very nice. Congrats and here's to many more!

Cathy

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

with the whole grains it has to be tasty too and taste overrides everything else by a wide margin.  Well done and happy baking

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

There's nothing like sourdough. As I was scrolling down and looking at the photos I said to myself "...and there's Wendy's signature t-rex slash". Your hubby sounds like he has good sense of humour. He even takes a photo of the temperature to show you.

Bon Appetite.

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

"Mix together and leave in a warm spot to ferment for 12 hours. It should almost double in bulk.  I will note here that I have Rodney, my rye sour, so instead of Build #1, I used 25 grams of Rodney and mixed him with Build #2".

??

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

I need to correct that. I realized last night when starting a third build that my written notes were wrong. I will change to, "using my already active sour, Rodney, I take 100 grams and mix with 100 grams each of whole wheat flour and and water Instead of build 2

Thanks for having my back!

 

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

I'm working on build 3 of this recipe and of course made the one correction using my already established sour.  My question regards overnight rise....when I pull my bannetons out in the a.m. I noticed that there didn't seem to be a significant rise but they baked up nicely.  I'm hoping I can leave them refrigerated for a longer period of time because I need them for Friday a.m. and I won't have time to prepare/bake at all on Thursday so putting in fridge for up to 36 hours as they will go in sometime this evening.  Any thoughts?  Otherwise I hope for the best!

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

Usually when I retard i'll do so at the final proofing and maximum 12hours. As for 36 hours i'm really not sure. If you're ok with all the technical stuff then take a look at this....

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=retarding

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

and perhaps my only option is to refrigerate/retard the levain and then feed it again later today and leave overnight.  Of course I'll then have more than I need...not a problem as I'll use it for a second bake the next day.  My problem is not only do I work all day on Thursday but I also have a group that I meet with at night so the entire day is booked.  Baking for Friday knitting club can be tricky.

So I think I need to adjust my schedule like this...what do you think?  Of course times are approximate and depend on the dough. 

Hours NeededStart TimeProcess
2Thursday 6:30 a.m.Prepare dough and Autolyse
8Thursday  8 a.m.Set dough for bulk fermentation at room temp
15Thursday 4 p.m.Shape for Cold Retardation
1Friday 5 a.m.Bake

Hopefully on the kitchen counter it should take longer since its still only in the 60 dF range here....as it only took 5 hours this last time since I kept the microwave/proofing box toasty warm with boiled water.  

And if all else fails, I'll take something out of the freezer instead since that is full of baked goods!

Oh and I feel like I'm back in school with all the research I've been doing!

 

 

 

 

 

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

But why would you build more than you need? Do first build now. Second build tonight and ready to go ahead Thursday morning. Just build up to however much you need.

Wow all those books. My head would be swimming.

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

So I now basically have a third starter I guess.

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

Now I see. Well then what you've said is fine. Take the bit off to build for Thursday. And with the remainder just refrigerate till needed and build again. Better keep on top of all these starters LOL

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

levain after the 3rd build doubles for anywhere form 24 - 48 hours all the time just to improve the sour.  it doesn't seem to notice:-) I just warm it up on the counter, without feeding again, when I'm ready to use it for a couple of hours and autolyse the dough flour and water at the same time - No worries!

WendySusan's picture
WendySusan

thanks...I'll try it that way too.

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

then refrigerate the flour and water. This will slow it down to help fit into a schedule too. But your current schedule lloks fine. it's a 12-15 hour bulk rise anyways with the usual recipe.