The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My Three-Day, Rotating, Country White Bread

carrtje's picture
carrtje

My Three-Day, Rotating, Country White Bread

My three-day, rotational, Country White dough...and first attempt at blogging.

I bake this bread every third day or so, and it pretty much always turns out the same.  The original recipe is the basic white dough from Richard Bertinet's "Dough", which I absolutely love.  I stumbled upon this process one day by accident.  

I woke up early one Saturday and decided it was a good day for some fresh bread.  After mixing up the dough, and putting it in the oven to rise (I usually use the oven with the light on trick), my wife reminded me that we had to get ready to leave for the day...oops.  I slid the dough into an oiled plastic bag, and popped it into the refrigerator.  

Well, as we all know, life happens fast.  I kept remembering that dough ball in the fridge, but didn't seem to have time to bake it.  Finally, a few days later I had the crazy idea to use it like a starter.  I have since read that this isn't a crazy idea, but a pretty common one.  Now it's become my bread of choice.  Every few days I take the bag of dough out of the fridge, chop it into thirds, and make three batches of the original recipe, adding a third of the old dough to each.  I've even gone as far as a week and a half between baking, which makes a deliciously sour loaf!

A few days early, mix up this dough and stash it in an oiled bag in the refrigerator:

18 oz white bread flour

12.5 oz water

2 tsp kosher salt

1.5 tsp instant yeast

 

When you're ready to bake, here's what I do.

First, take your dough out of the refrigerator, and divide it by weight into three equal portions.  Take one portion, and cut it up into little strips or balls about an 1x1 inches.  The smaller it is, the easier it is to mix into the dough.  Measure out your water.  If the dough is really cold, I use pretty warm water.  Plop your old dough into the water and let it hang out while you measure out your other ingredients.  You end up making the recipe three times, so I like to get all the old dough in separate water portions, with three bowls of dry ingredients ready, too.

Old dough in water

I pour the first batch of water / old dough into the Kitchenaid bowl with the paddle attachment, and mix on low for a few minutes until it's pretty well homogeneous.

I mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl by swirling it with the dough hook by hand.

Next, I pour the dry mixture on top, replace attachments with the dough hook, and turn the machine on to level 2 for two minutes.  If it doesn't seem to be picking up the flour as well as I like, sometimes I stop the machine, and scrape the bowl with the hook a few times.

After two minutes, I turn the machine up to level four for seven minutes.  Notice it's a nice, wet dough.

I turn the dough straight out onto a floured surface, and tri-fold it into a ball.  I put this in a floured bowl, and place in the oven until risen double.

After the first rise, I gently pull it into a square, and tri fold it again.  I put it back in the bowl, and rise it in the oven for a second time.

After this rise, I square it, and form the final loaf.  I put it on a floured tea-towel.  I put a 12 inch dutch oven, with lid in the oven and preheat it to 525F

Pretty much by the time the oven is pre-heated, I take the dutch oven out and set it on a cutting board.  I flop the dough into it, put the lid on, and put it back in the oven for 20 minutes.  

After 20 minutes, I remove the lid and bake for 15 more minutes, or until it's nice and golden brown.

Now, just do it again.  The third batch I bag up and save in the refrigerator for next time.

This bread makes really yummy, crispy toast.  We ate it just this afternoon as chicken salad sandwiches.  It's our all-purpose bread.

Comments

xaipete's picture
xaipete

That sounds like an interesting formula, Carrtje. Welcome to TFL. I'm sure you'll love blogging your breads here and looking at what other create.

--Pamela

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

 pate fermentee or old dough your routine and write-up are very nice..Welcome to TFL!

Sylvia

chiaoapple's picture
chiaoapple

Hi Carrtje, thanks for the post. I like the idea of having a batch of starter dough in the fridge and ready to go.

If I'm understanding correctly, to apply this method to a recipe I would simply subtract the amounts in the final recipe by the amount of flour / liquid / salt / yeast in the starter being used? Or should the final dough have the same baker's percentages as the starter dough? (I roughly calculated the starter to be 70% hydration, 2.3% salt and 1.5% yeast).

I hope I phrased my question clearly, thanks!

carrtje's picture
carrtje

Thanks for the reply.

Nope, no subtracting amounts.  I simply re-make the original recipe and add the 1/3 old dough to it.  So, essentially the bread that ends up getting baked is larger than the original recipe from the book.  

Bertinet seems to have a really forgiving recipe.  I sometimes muck about with it and add some oil, whole grains, seeds, polenta, cooked rice; whatever I feel like throwing in there.  It seems to always come out well.

carrtje's picture
carrtje

I feel like I didn't explain that well enough.  How about looking at it this way:

Old Dough, to be made in advance:

18g flour

12.5g water

2 tsp kosher salt

1.5 tsp yeast

 

Dough to be baked:

18g flour

12.5g water

2 tsp kosher salt

1.5 tsp yeast

1/3 recipe Old Dough (see above)

 

Does that help?  i hope so, because this method has served me really well, and I hope it will serve others too.

Just Loafin's picture
Just Loafin

Hi : )

Was clear to me the first time, but I do have 2 questions...

First -

I've even gone as far as a week and a half between baking, which makes a deliciously sour loaf!

I'm not sure how this part works... if you are using commercial yeast to create the 'old dough', how is the (or any) sour being achieved?

Secondly, if you take the original recipe and make old dough, third it, then make 3 more recipes adding 1/3 the old dough to each, bake 2 and re-save one to the fridge, it seems to me that the one in the fridge is now 1 1/3 of the recipe. Next time you use it, your loaves would be larger and your next save would be larger yet again. This would continue each bake until it becomes ridiculous. Am I missing something here, or is there a discard procedure somewhere?

Bread looks good, I'd like to try it out... don't have a dutch oven, but I'm sure it should bake up fine in a conventional.

- Keith

carrtje's picture
carrtje

As for the commercial yeast question...no idea.  I really don't know anything about sourdough-art.  I just know the longer it takes me to bake bread, the more sour the dough tastes.

The second question, believe it or not, has never occurred to me...until your post.  Looking back, I see that I usually end up baking all three loaves every few rotations and starting over.  Either we're just using more bread, or we take it to a friend, or whatever, I use it up.  I Have cycled it through...thinking back...at least three times and haven't noticed a loaf-zilla.  I guess if the old dough looks too big you could quarter it or something.  I'm a pretty laid-back baker.

I use my dutch oven because it's so easy, but I have used the dough as free-form loaves.  It comes out just fine.

patman23's picture
patman23

Ok, I'm giving it a shot today.  I made the preferment on Saturday so here it is Monday and I'm ready to roll. 

Am I to assume that I put the 3rd batch back into an oiled bag and stick it in the refer?

The first batch, which is on it's first rise was a really nice dough.  I have never let my Viking mixer do all the work before.  I kinda feel like Im cheating.  :-)

I'll post updates as I progress...  Thanks  for the detailed instructions!

 

Patman

patman23's picture
patman23

I'm gettin ready to put the first loaf into the oven.  It feels wierd to not let it rise again, not to mention I'm putting it into a scalding hot pan...  I'll trust the process.

patman23's picture
patman23

Well one is out of the oven and the other just wnt in.   Not too bad at all...  I really appreciate the time you took to post this.  Still waiting for the loaf to cool down so we can sample it but it looks devine!  I tried to post pictures but they are too large....  Thanks again!

 

Patman

patman23's picture
patman23

Is there a recomended internal temperature for pulling it out of the oven?  I'm trying 195f but I was wondering what your thoughts were.  If I keep the oven at 525 I get too dark of a crust on the bottom and sides.  Ive lowerd the temp to 425 and it seems to be good I just need to increase the baking time by about 7 or 8 minutes.  I have yet to cut it yet though... that's where the real proof is though is suppose...

 

Just Loafin's picture
Just Loafin

Most of my 'white' type of breads I go for 205-207 degrees F, and I usually bake at around 450. I push the temp probe up through the bottom crust, aiming for the middle of the crumb.

 

- Keith