Tomato Sourdough Bread
This sourdough has a lovely light orange crumb. I modified the original recipe which was 100% white flour and instead used a combination of white bread, whole red fife and whole rye flours. The tomato paste is complimented with rosemary and celery seeds, I couldn’t find nigella seeds so subbed celery seeds, but I think nigella would have been better.
311 g white bread flour
46 g whole wheat flour
21 g dark rye flour
2 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary leaves
3 g celery seeds
287 g warm water reserve 21 g for later
31 g tomato paste
1.5 teaspoon olive oil
7.5 g salt
77 g levain
This is only the second sourdough loaf that I’ve baked that has had any sort of an ear on it. I think I’ve improved my final shaping a bit, I believe I hadn’t been using enough flour on my hands causing my hands to stick to the relatively high hydration dough. Secondly, I think I hadn’t been scoring deeply enough. The best part of the ear on this loaf was where I scored the deepest. I hope that things will continue to improve from here with more baking.
Comments
Looks great! I also have the same issue and always think "next time I need to flour my hands better!"
Great looking bread, Benny!
Comparing the first and second image reveals that the loaf got some very nice oven spring.
Counting the oil, it looks like your hydration is north of 76%. Alfanso, one of our resident scoring and ear producing masters uses hydrations much lower than that. I think he likes ~68%.
I think you must have nailed the fermentation and shaping...
Dan
Thank you Danny. I do keep a close eye on the fermentation, looking for signs such as a good domed top, bubbles on top especially near the edges of the bowl. I also think now that I have tried slap and fold method for building gluten that I’ve been getting better results. I’ve been doing slap and folds for about 5 minutes at the beginning of bulk fermentation and then followed by stretch and folds during the first half of bulk, then leaving the dough to ferment without intervention.
I think I have a better idea of what I need to do during final shaping. It finally clicked when I was watching a video of someone shaping that “hey, he has floured hands” and never used to flour my hands. So this time I made a point of getting my hands floated lightly with flour so when I was shaping, the dough wasn’t sticking as much. Funny but such a simple thing can lead to an ah ha moment that makes a big difference.
Beautiful loaf Bennie ! Sounds like a great bread for a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. I am definitely going to save this one. I love how dark it got in the oven and your ' ear" is perfect. c
If you try it with nigella seeds I'd love to know how it turns out, as I said in my post I couldn't find nigella seeds, at least not yet.
Your crust and crumb look excellent and I'm sure this one tastes as good as it looks.
You certainly did get some nice oven spring and a nice dark crust.
Happy Baking.
Ian
Thank you Ian.
Benny
Hi Benny,
I have a recipe for smoked chili bread and I thought it might be nice with the addition of tomato paste. At what stage did you incorporate the tomato paste? Did you dissolve it in the water or add during S&F?
Thanks!
Hi, I mixed the tomato paste in with the water to fully dissolve it. I’ll be looking forward to seeing your smoked chili bread, sounds good.
Benny