The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Weekend Baking

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

Weekend Baking

Just decided I would use this space to help document my various starter and bread experiments.

Starter: Have gone from spelt (not sure why I tried that) to whole wheat, now shifting to rye. As soon as the size of the existing batch is down a bit I will shift to the NMNF method to keep it going.

Bread: Slight shift here from must-be-done-all-right-now to spreading things out a bit. Basically, I am starting to plan ahead better. Start levain, then mix and rise overnight, fold, shape and proof and bake in the morning. 

Recipes: Whole wheat and plain sourdough is fine, but need to add more seeds and other ingredients.

Now to decide on this weekend's bread!

Comments

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

... and so many tempting recipes!

I can vouch for the ease of the 66% hydration rye NMNF starter --- my last feed on mine was Feb 10 and it is still working great.  It really does fit in better with the whole idea that the bakes are supposed to fit in to your life --- and that you don't arrange your life around the bakes!

I'm looking forward to see what you come up with for the weekend - take lots of pics!

 

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

74 g starter

99 g water

99 g rye flour

 

200 g Fuller WW flour

200 g KA Bread flour

10 g sea salt

255 g water

 

In retrospect, I screwed up. Rye should have been left out completely. Almost had a repeat of the previous rye dough of doom. Added a bit of water, got everything mashed down into a dough-like shape if not consistency. It will be interesting to see how it fares overnight...

 

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

This morning it has risen very nicely! 

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

A little folding, a little rounding - time to proof

Album is here

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE parchment paper? It's a deep and abiding love, I assure you

Time to cool down - we listened to it. It was singing, the voices of a hundred tiny little angels!

Only 2.5 inches tall. Overall I think I'd like to end up with more bread volume. I haven't figured out the exact right amount of flour to fill this 5-qt. dutch oven yet.

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

the wife claims she can see the image of a bird. Can you see it?

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

She wants to eat that bird bad,  After the lid comes off and 5 minutes more baking then take the  bread out of the cooker completely and finish baking it on a stone or on the rack.  No more burned bottoms.  Looks grand canlt ait to see the inside.My NMNF Whole rye starter was fed December 20th last year  and will need refreshing in a couple of weeks, The Whole wheat one is a month younger

Well done and happy baking 

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

forgot to turn the oven down to 475 after preheat, so maybe that was it

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

just like the loaf that it's on!

I'm with ya on the serious love of parchment paper (I have about a 2-year supply hoarded away, just in case...)  I also am a huge fan of glass or clear plastic containers for fermenting in, since it's so handy to be able to actually see what is going on at the bottom of the dough.

Don't you be going and blaming the poor innocent rye for that batch of flour soup you fought with --- it's not the rye's fault that you got a wee tidge carried away with the H2O...  Keeping this one at 25% rye will give you that great rye flavour and really isn't enough to make it too, too hard to handle.  You did keep it challenging with staying at the 63% whole grain, but the strength of the bread flour should have helped a lot.  I'm betting that the crumb won't have the big gaping holes (a la Tartine), but should have a decently light and open texture while still being solid enough to work as a sandwich...

Nice work - and I hope you had fun with it!

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

iceD - You are correct - no need to sully the good name of rye for a rookie mistake. Today's fiasco rather proves the point, I think. See my next blog post for details!

But yes, I did have fun :)