Hello All,

Thought I'd post a pic of what I believe is my first successful sourdough. I didn't get the rise I was hoping for because I think I over-proved it. I went out for coffee and lost track of time!

I'm really happy with the crumb I've achieved as previously my sourdough attempts have been quite dense.

I've used:

250g starter

250g Bakers White Flour

250g Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup of soaked mixed grains

5g table salt

About 300ml of water 

Lauren

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to thank all of you for your help in getting me to this:

I use this site to help me calculate a recipe of 68% hydration, 25% starter at 100% hydration and 2% salt. I make a 100% hydration autolyse with the water and let it sit for 30 minutes or more and then add the salt to the rest of the flour. After a while, I mix the starter, autolyse and the salt-flour mix together. Stretch/fold 3 times every 30 minutes. Then it ferments a couple to a few more hours and then I shape (barely) and bake at 550 F with steam before and after dough goes in, then lowering to 400 after 5 minutes. It's finally acceptable to me and the flavor is nice! So thanks everyone, especially Mike, Jane, Pablo and Mini -- there are many more, but those names come to mind right now!

My Nutrimill came in yesterday and I decided to try it out on my weekly sandwich loaf. Yumminess ensued. As compared to the coarseness of the flour I was willing to produce with my hand-cranked mill, the flour from the Nutrimill produced a much better dough consistency/plasticity. Better gluten development, and an increase in the oven spring.

It also sounded like a jet winding up.

ooo... shiny

Couple Notes on the bread:

The shiny black top comes from a pure egg-white wash that also adds interesting crispness and flavorings.

I adore the side & bottom crust on these, which I believe comes from the cast-iron bread pans I'm using.

I need a new bread knife... they're just too soft to cut :)

crumbtastic

Without going into the problems of the bread itself, it was fun to do this.

raw snake

cooked snake

:-Paul

Here is a loaf of sourdough I just made at home. 

Here's what not to do with Jeffrey Hamelman's lovely Golden Raisin Bread:

1. forget to do the 2nd build on the levain
2. and not notice you forgot until too late.

A testament to this bread is that even missing 2 oz. of flour and 3 oz. of water, it is delicious! The crumb is a little coarser than usual, but the flavour and texture are fine. Well, the texture's not so great where the crust bubbled out, but elsewhere is fine.

I was doing six things at once last night, and one of them was supposed to be adding the 2nd and final feed to the levain. That is, after I transferred it to another bowl because I needed that one for something else. Never got back to it after the transfer. When I saw it sitting there later, just thought I forgot to cover it. I wondered why the levain looked a little limp at the 16 hour mark today. And why the dough was slacker than usual. And why the final dough weighed 5 oz. less than it should. Studied the formula. Dredged up the memories. Now I know. <sigh>

If confession is good for the soul, I guess I go to bed spiritually uplifted. Ready to bake another day.

Carol

If any folks here would rather get The Fresh Loaf headlines in Twitter, you can now.

I found the no-knead recipe on a French cookery forum a couple of years ago.

Slightly overcooked, but I was so pleased when I saw! I never expected the wet sticky dough to do wo well!

Cendrillon

I just wanted to show you what all your incredible advice has helped me produce. After 3 failed attempts, I have finally managed to bake up a 100% Rye Sourdough loaf that has a wonderful chewy crust, and an airy, bubbly interior. I've uploaded two photos into the gallery, one of which is below.

The recipe was given to me by a good friend at work (I'm blown away by the number of people at work who really do bake their bread), but essentially is a subtle variation on Reinhart's 100% Rye loaf in BBA.

Thanks to all of you for your help! 

Baking day produced Wild Yeast's hamburger buns for the crock pot BBQ. The recipe is nice and easy with a preferment and some whole wheat flour which I want. And here is my result . .

. hamburger buns