The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Two experiments

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Two experiments

I baked two loaves today.

Two loaves of bread

The white loaf is a sourdough dough I prepared on Wednesday while working from home.  I wanted to see if I kept a sourdough in the fridge for 4 days would it still bake up well.

For the most part, it did.  You can see a bit of compression near the bottom, and in the center there were definitely some thick gummy parts.  I think if I tried it again I would make a smaller shape, but I was impressed that it came out so well after all that time. 

The other loaf is a 100% whole wheat loaf I made using a recipe from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads.

whole wheat bread

The whole wheat flour was sent to me by flourgirl51, who sells freshly milled organic flour at www.organicwheatproducts.com.  The bread is good.  100% whole wheat is a bit much for my kids, so I probably will have to eat most of this loaf myself, but I certainly can see how if you are into whole grain breads you'd want to either mill the flour yourself or find a good vendor that mills it fresh.  The freshly milled flour is significantly more flavorful.

Comments

Marni's picture
Marni

How did the soudough taste after being in the fridge for four days?  Sourer than usual?

Marni

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Maybe a little bit more sour than usual, but not as much more sour as I thought it might be.

xaipete's picture
xaipete

Both your loaves look very nice, Floyd. The SD loaf has a wonderful looking crumb structure. And, it survived for four days in the fridge. Isn't that a wonderful thing? I've found that I can make up a batch of dough and then bake it off over four days without any problem. Sometimes part of the dough even get made into pizza. I love being able to make pizza at the drop of a hat and it seems that almost any lean dough will turn out a decent product so long as I don't burn it up on the BBQ!

--Pamela

mountaindog's picture
mountaindog

on that whole wheat especially! It looks really delicious. I'll bet that fresh flour made it taste much sweeter than usual.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The WW greets us like a blue ribbon prize winner!  Wonderful moist crumb too!

You're also a good loafer!

Mini

ehanner's picture
ehanner

The SD looks great as I would have expected and the WW is, as Mini said outstanding! To be totally honest I have never made a WW loaf I enjoyed. They always seem to be a little hearty and "good for you" and not full of flavor for my tastes.

The fresh ground flour is worth trying. I have been toying with buying a grinder for a while but I just can't make myself start another project inside of a hobby. The easier solution is to find a source of fresh ground WW flour. Your loaf looks perfect Floyd.

Eric

crumb bum's picture
crumb bum

Hey Floyd

Both your breads look great.  I am amazed at the way your "4 days shaped in the fridge loaf" turned out.  I see the gummy part and made me wonder if you proofed it with the bottom down or up.  It also looked like it really popped in the oven.  I guess that 4 days in the fridge did not destroy the gluten.  I have been messing around with a pate fermente or old dough technique and have let the old dough sit in the fridge for 3 days.  I have never had the guts to let the shaped dough go for more than 24 hours though.  I was curious about the hydration of the 4 dayer as well.  Using the fridge and time sure gives me a good crumb.  Even at 65%, which has sort of become my fav overnight dough hydration.  I look back and realize that I used to pump up the hydration looking for openness instead of just giving it time.  Speaking of time, I love all these "retarding" tricks and techniques that allow me to be able to bake as well as have a life.  Thanks

Da Crumb Bum 

vincent's picture
vincent

floydm

everythings perfect masterpiece i can imagine the delicate softness of the crumbs, nice textures

 

vincent