_2 whole wheat, 2 french & 2potato

Charlie

(argh! just lost my post because I wanted to figure out how to add images and clicked on "more information about formatting options", which didn't open in a new window as expect. Try again I guess)

I am fairly new to these forums and started baking bread about three months ago. Currently I am focussing more on heavier wholegrain breads as I used to eat a lot of brown bread (whether it was wholegrain or not I don't know) back in England, and since moving to Japan, finding places that sell good brown and wholegrain bread is quite difficult, as most bread here seems to be soft white bread, although I have found a few nice places recently. Because of the scarcity (especially away from proper bakers) of wholegrain and brown bread here, it has been quite exciting for me to be making them at home.

Actually, I didn't know what sourdough bread was until I started reading Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", but partly due to my girlfriend being into macrobiotic cooking and making almost everything herself, and partly due to the attraction of keeping a named pet that helps me bake bread in my fridge I decided to try making a sourdough loaf.

I started seeding my sourdough mother starter a few weeks ago, and after some initial troubles with it being very slow to show signs of life due to my cold apartment, it eventually sprung to life and now seems quite happy living in it's new refridgerated home. This weekend I thought he was ready to come out and help me bake some bread, so I ripped off a bit to use in a 100% wholegrain sourdough recipe, taken from Reinhart's "Wholegrain Breads" book.

Here are my first TFL pictures. The bread turned out very well and tastes great; It starts off a bit like regular bread but after a few chews the sourness becomes apparent. The only thing I would like to improve about it is the texture. Although the crumb looks pretty good and is definitely not too dense, the crust is a little chewier than I would like, as I prefer a bit more crunch to my bread. Maybe I can try steaming it next time?

Here is the recipe (heavily based on the recipe in Peter Reinhart's wonderful book "Wholegrain Breads"):

SOAKER

180g - wholegrain flour

40g - rolled oats / oatmeal

1tsp - coarse ground sea salt

200ml - warm water (I forgot to use milk. I had soy milk, but I am pretty sure I forgot and just used water)

WILD YEAST STARTER

100g - wholegrain Sourdough mother starter (a little more than the recipe called for)

150g - wholegrain flour (a little less than the recipe called for)

150ml - filtered, lukewarm water

FINAL DOUGH

all - soaker

all - wild yeast starter

60g - wholegrain flour

1tsp - coarse ground sea salt (all I had, normally I think fine grind would be more suitable here)

1tbsp - olive oil (instead of vegetable oil)

3tbsp - maple syrup (instead of brown sugar)

Note that I omitted instant yeast from the final dough, as I didn't really see the point in adding it to a sourdough bread. I didn't spot any notes saying that it should be left out if working with a wild yeast starter, but I presume that it is meant to be. Seemed to work ok anyway :)

I left the starter and soaker out on the table in my kitchen at night (I guess it would have been around 14-15C) for about 10 hours before I combined them to make the final dough. I used Reinhart's method of chopping up the soaker and starter and combining them in the bowl with the other ingredients and kneaded the sough by hand for about 15-20 minutes on the table. Maybe that seems a little long, but I tend to work extra flour in very slowly as I find adding a lot at once to a dough that is not super hydrated makes working the dough a real pain in the arse.

Once the dough was mixed, I left it for about 3 hours before I thought it was sufficiently risen for shaping. I turned it into a batard because my sandwhich loaf breads haven't been rising well recently and I wanted to try something else. Once I'd done that I left it for another 3 hours or so before scoring it, putting a little flour on top and then leaving it another hour for the cut to open a little more (I didn't expect an oven spring so I wanted to let it open a bit before baking.)

I baked it at 220C for 25 minutes, then when I noticed the top was very brown I covered it with aluminium foil and left it a further 35 minutes at 210C. After baking I managed to resist the temptation to cut it for 2 hours, so it had fully cooled when I finally cut into it.

As I said before, I am pleased with the result and will be trying this again, along with other sourdough variations. I spotted a sourdough bagel recipe that sounded rather a appealing...

Just sharing a picture of the Cinnamon buns I made today.

I used a recipe in a book I had, but had to make some changes to it. #1 change was the yeast, the recipe called for osmotolerant and that is not sold here.

These are my current best attempts.  I'm at 7,500' in Colorado. Potato Dill Sourdough.

The one below is Olive oil Rosemary

I  would be interested in any comments or constructive critisism.  They were both baked at 450 for 35 minutes turning once. They taste great. I'm looking for some information especially on the oilve oil rosemary.

Thanks, Marty

Well, I have baked this bread many times, but this time around a whole bunch of things were changed in the process. Number one was that I made my own starter more according to what I read here on this site, rather than what it states in my trusted W. Fahrenkamp "Knuspriges Brot aus dem eigenen Ofen"(Crispy/Crunchy bread from your own oven). I feel my new starter is way more active and the bread easily doubled in the 75 minutes bulk proofing time. I also decided to retard it overnight in the fridge-something I had never done before. Upon waking it had spilled out of the loaf pan and I folded it down, reshaped it and let it proof under a damp towel for another 30-45 minutes; by that time it had risen again quite a bit and I feared I would end up overproofing, so I stuck it into my preheated oven-tossed icecubes into the oven as I always do, plus a pan of water, but this time the bread was on the lowest shelf. Previously I would have trouble with the bottom of the loaf almost burning since it is baked at about 220celcius for an hour and then at about 280 celcius for another 10 minutes-so this was the first time of putting it on the lower shelf.

Since I am not in the habit of opening the oven during baking( can one open the oven?I would imagine for some breads letting the steam escape is not good) I didn't realize until 10 minutes prior to the 230 degree bake that the temperature somehow was only at about 190 degrees celcius-probably due to me pre-heating the oven at about 250degrees and then turning it down....anyways, I wonder if that is part of the reason why one side of the bread is cracked HMPH!It says in the book I took the recipe from that a crack in the crust can be cause by the oven temp being too low,too little steam, or over/underproofing-any thoughts? I also wrapped it in a towel to cool down afterwards, which I had never done before, but read about in this forum:for my personal taste I wouldn't do that again, since I love a super hard crust, but it actually makes the bread way way way more appealing to my husband!

Anyways, all in all the bread did not burn or get near to burning on the underside(yay!!!), the crumb is dense-without being very heavy, flavorful, moist, with just a very light sourdough taste(I hope it will taste more sour as the starter matures). I think overall I am happy with the retardation in the fridge, but then again it could also be the very vigorous SD culture I have now. If I can just ensure that the dear loaf doesn't get a crack in the crust the next time around...........

Below are some pictures-included the good and bad side of the loaf and crumb shot.

next the not so great side-I also don't know why the corner turned so dark*slightly grumbly*

lastly-crumbshot

I posted a recipe under my initial question about retarding this type of bread here:http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16558/question-about-retarding-german-sourdough-bread

Oh, I only kneaded this bread, in the bowl for about 10 minutes and added closer to 750 ml water-my starter was slightly lower in hydration than what the recipe called for and I generally do this by feel-it has to feel nice and velvety smooth and gooey.

I will have a nice thick piece of this bread with some Schmalz tonight.......I should have bought beer!

Christina

Just sharing some pics of the Hot Cross Buns I just made.

The recipe is from The Professional Pastry Chef

Taste delightful!

I would like to share photos of a Cranberry Walnut bread made by Barrio Bread Co.  Beautiful breads and so delicious!file:///Users/dguerra/Desktop/_LGH4416.jpgfile:///Users/dguerra/Desktop/_LGH4340%20copy.jpg

Since I've successfully managed to develop a sourdough starter, I've been baking sourdough breads almost everyday for one straight week! But here are some of my favorites so far: Kalamata Olive Bread and Blue Cheese Bread. They both have some rye flour, plus my starter is part-rye as well. I'm still very new to the whole thing and there is a lot to learn, but it has been a very fun and delicious journey for sure!

I only thought of the blue cheese when the bread was about to go into the oven, so I didn't stuff it in the dough itself, but I love the look and taste of the bubbly melty cheese on top. This was done in about 5 hours, and my friends and I (4 of us) finished the whole loaf in about 2 minutes.... (and it was after we had finished eating dinner, too....)

Raisin, Craisin, Pecan Sourdough bread.

Getting back into bread making.

Today is Valentine's Day also Chinese New Year.  I wanted to bake something for both occasions.  Ended up making these sweet buns with a Chinese spin:  mini Chinese cocktail buns with sweet coconut fillings.

Happy Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year!

Al