The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

HELLOOOOOOO!

jonhong's picture
jonhong

HELLOOOOOOO!

Good morning ALL,

It's 7am here in Singapore, just found and joined this forum.  Hugh load of informations, very happy to be in here.  Waiting for my sourdough to defrost now and firing up my oven.  My starter which is about 10 days old went wild last nite.  :).  Just started to try baking again.  I am a newbie. Will look forward to all the help I can get from members in the forum.  Many thanks in advance.

Cheers

Jon Hong

 

 

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Welcome Jon! 

Your starter looks great. What an outstanding image.

Question; You mentioned that your sourdough is defrosting. What do you keep in the freezer?

Looking forward to hearing about your bakes. Keep sending those great pictures.

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

Thanks Dan for the welcome.

Sorry, what i meant was bring the dough to room temperature.

Cheers

 

Jon

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

Thanks Dan for the welcome.

Sorry, what i meant was bring the dough to room temperature.

Cheers

 

Jon

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Fresh from oven, unfortunately, I don't why my dongh cannot hold it shape.

 

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Will see how is the crumb in an hour time!

 

Cheers

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Hey Jon, if this is one of your first sourdough breads, you should be proud! How I wished mine would have looked like yours in the early stages. The blisters on your loaf are very desirable. From the angle it is difficult to know how well it rose. The crumb shot will tell a better story.

Tells us everything about your starter and the formula/recipe that you used to bake your bread.

Looking forward to seeing an image of the crumb and hearing about the flavor...

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Hi, Dan

This is probably my 7 loaves easily since Tues, in fact my friend jus whatsApp me asking if I am overly obsessed!  Anyway, got to walk the dog, (and the wife too :) ). Details later. 

Cheers,

BTW, thanks for your comments,  tough doing it all alone. Especially, when your mrs threaten to throw you out of the house for turning the house into a bakery!!!!

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

You’ll quickly find out that many of us are equally obsessed.

Many other users will be joining in to help feed your addiction :-) This is not the place to find a cure for a bread baking addict.

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

Here's the crumb!. It is a little bit dame.

 

 

 

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Welcome! Your loaf looks lovely!! Well done.

Tell us about the recipe. 

Ru

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

HI, Dan & Ru

Sorry, I didn't manage to get back to you folk yesterday with regards to the recipe.  Got this recipe for the ebook I bought, Flour, Water, Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.  The bread is called White bread with Poolish.

 

For the Poolish

  • 250g White Flour
  • 250ml Distilled Water
  • A pinch of Active Dry yeast (0.2g)

 

For the Bread

 

  • 250g White flours 
  • 125ml Distilled Water 
  • 10.5g  Fine Sea Salt
  • 1.5g Active Dry Yeast 
  • Poolish

I actually halved the recipe for my bread.   Basically, the poolish is prepared 12 hour in advanced.  Then everything is mixed and combined well together. Bulk fermentation will take 2 to 3 hours with 2 to 3 folds of dough are required preferable during the first hour of fermentation.  The dough is then shaped and proof for 1 hour.  Baked at 245C, dough in Dutch Oven. 30min with Dutch oven cover and another 30min without the covers.

I have followed the instructions as closely as I can.  The only thing i deviated from was the used of Dutch Oven. I have 3  Dutch Oven but they seem a tat too small for the dough to go in.  So I bake on a pizza stone instead.  Anyway, it impossible for my dough to go into the Dutch oven as most of the time when it was removed from the proofing bowl, it look for like a space ship (deflated) than a boule!!!  BTW, this dough has a 75% hydration.  I had reduced the hydration of the last 2 dough to 71.4%. I still don't get the ball.

On... temperature of the dough was another issue for me.  I can't quite understand, what Mr Forkish was trying to say.

Ok here's a look at the bread I had bake. There are 2 earlier dough where it so wet I can't even shaped them!!!

2 June 2018

3 June 2018

5 June 2018, I got my ball, but I guess I had shaped it too much and I end up with a dense and wet crumb!

 

6 June 2018

7 June 2018

8 June 2018, This dough has a 71.4% hyration, the rest above had 75 hydration.

The main issue is I can get dough that passed the window pane test, most of the time it is just too wet. The other thing that I want to try is to cut the down smaller after bulk fermentation to fit into my Dutch Oven.  Well, hope you folks can help.  I be baking this Friday to Sunday, if my wife let me live through Sunday :) .

Cheers, and thanks in advance. (time for bed)

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Many of the crumb shots look outstanding to me. 5 June looks phenomenal. I would be absolutely thrilled to produce that crumb on regular basis. I know the big holes are all the rage, but I really like that one. Looks like it bloomed well and rose nicely. I like everything about that bread.

There is something I don’t understand. You showed your vigorous starter, but the recipe calls for a yeast poolish. Please explain.

After studying your post, I wonder if your flour may be the culprit. Too bad we couldn’t visit and be able to touch and feel your dough. Maybe your wife can video you shaping your dough. It might give us an idea what you are working with.

If you would have seen my first bakes, you’d be very proud of yours. You are doing GREAT!

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Thanks Dan for your reply.

Sorry, all the bread I had made so far used the yeast poolish. My starter (named Milo) was only borned on 1 June 2018 and I have only used it once to try and bake this pan loaf and of course it a total disaster.  The dough was literally dripping off my finger.  But I was still brave enough to keep goning and this is how it turns out.  Milo had since passed the floating test....

 Here are some shot of my dough,  I used Kiing Authur Unbleached All Purpose Floor and Bread Flour.

 

..

 

 Well, this Friday and Saturday I will bake my first sourdough flour. So what do you folks suggests? I have tried bread with 71% and 75% hydration but I could handle the dough and could not pass the window pane test all the time.  Can I reduce the hydration to 65% or even 60% of a recipe without affecting the outcome of the bread.  

Could I also reduce the size of the dough after bulk fermentation so that the dough will fit into my Dutch Oven?

Or anyone could provide me with a great sourdough recipe to use these weekend.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Hey Jon, I sent you a PM. Maybe we can Skype or do FaceTime.

It seems the 123 Sourdough formula is a good first bake.

1 part Levain, 2 parts water, 3 parts flour, and 2% salt.

Example; 100g Levain @ 100% hydration, 200g water, 300g flour, and 6g salt.

Total flour = 350g and total water = 250g.  The hydration is 71%.

This would make a good first sourdough test. Nice hydration and the math is very simple, just multiply by 1 and 2 and 3. The salt would be 2% of the total flour weight.

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the 123 Sourdough, sound interesting.....how about baking instruction?  Being a newbie, it will be hard to do so without any instruction.

Cheers,

Jon

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

This is how I would mix and bake this bread.

In one bowl mix thoroughly 100g of a vigorous 100% Levain with 200g water. In another bowl mix together 300g of moderately strong flour with 7g salt. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix until it forms a shaggy mass and there are no remaining lumps of flour. Note; you are not trying to develop the gluten during this mix. Cover the bowl and set aside for an hour. The fermentation has begun.

After 40 minutes do a stretch and fold (once around), cover and set aside for 40 minutes. Repeat this 2 or 3 more times, resting 40 minutes or so in between. You want the dough to rise approximately 3/4 above its original size. This time will vary, depending on your Levain, temperature of both dough and room. Try not to let it rise over double.

Turn dough out onto the counter and pre- shape, rest 20 - 30 minutes, then final shape. Place shaped dough into a cloth lined banneton or similar container that has been dusted with rice flour if you have it, otherwise wheat flour will do.

Let the dough begin the proof on the counter until it is 75 - 80% proofed. The dent from a finger Polk test should come out slowly and leave very little or no dent. You don’t want the dough to proof completely. It is now ready to refrigerate. 

Lightly flour the top of your dough to prevent sticking, cover in plastic bag, and place in the bottom of your refrigerator for 12 - 24 hours. Note; if your refrigerator is not cold enough, your dough may over proof. The correct temperature should be about 37 - 39F. If the temperature is 40F or above you may need to refrigerate the dough immediately (or maybe an hour) after shaping.

Remove from the refrigerator and immediately score and bake.

Bake in a pre-heated oven set to 460F using steam, if you have it, for 20 minutes. Remove steam and finish baking for 10 - 20 minutes. Bread’s internal temp should read 207 - 210F, otherwise tap the bottom of the bread and listen for hollow sound.

If you have the self control, wait until the next day to slice:-(  If not, Oh well... go ahead and enjoy:-)  I find that sourdough taste better with age. I like it best 2 or 3 days after baking.

Not sure if you are aware, but bread freezes extremely well. You can slice it and freeze in a zip lock plastic bag for a month or more. Take out the slices you want, and microwave 30 seconds or so.

Good luck Jon, looking forward to speaking with you on FaceTime.

Make sure your Levain is prepared ahead of time so you’ll be ready to mix the dough at your target time.

Dan

If anyone finds errors or mis-communications, please write back to correct. It’s important that Jon gets the best advice.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

we are all a bit obsessed about bread here, lol!!! thatis a great crumb for a first bake!  Ask away, lots of folks here to help.

happy baking

Leslie

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

theme "Bread" and so you can let down your flour here.  We understand!  

Oh, and don't forget to tip the screen away from the non-breadies so you can pretend to be reading something else!   :)   

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

You should be making bread for it!  it all looks grand.  Welcome and happy SD baking,  Try to get these guys to make peace so we can all live longer without worrying about being blown.

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Hi dabrownman,

Thanks for your warm welcome, I think your President is about to board AirForce and head back home. Kim went home this afternoon.  Hopefully they shaked and kissed to make our world a safer place for us.

Cheers

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

A Big Amen to PEACE, Jon!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Not much nutrients and minerals in distilled water.  The only choice?

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Mini, I started using spring (bottled) water some time back because of the lack of minerals in distilled water. I don’t have streams or well water available.

Would rain water be a viable option, or should I stick with bottled spring water. Google seems to Indicate that rain water is relatively low in mineral content. Heck, I wonder if that “spring water” didn’t come from a municipal faucet :-)

Dan

jonhong's picture
jonhong

Hi,

I used distilled water since I understand that the tap water here contain chlorine which is unhealthy for the yeast. Is water with mineral a better option?

 

Jon

jonhong's picture
jonhong

 

Thanks Dan for your valuable time and effort in sharing valuable information with me,  Here the new Milo...

 

 

Hope, it look right.

 

Jon