Here are two no knead loaves baked in an oblong cloche. Both were made using the same reipe, using 1/4 Cup of sourdough starter in lieu of 1/4 t of instant yeast. The difference is in the fermentation time (12 hours for the first and 16 hours for the second), and the resultant "explosion" of the crust with the second loaf. Has anyone else seen this type of reaction when Iusing sourdough starter? I do not get this reaction when using commercial yeast and varying the fermentation time as earlier described. The flavor is magnificent, by the way.

Yesterday's loaf with 12 hour fermentation.

Here is today's loaf with 16 hour fermentation. It's too hot to cut into, but I'm sure the crumb is very open.

Check out the shine inside of the split. Is this the sugars carmelizing when the lid was removed? The crumb in yesterday's loaf had a sheen to it in the air holes.

This recipe comes from Pierre Nury via Daniel Leader's Local Breads, this is the second recipe I've made from the book (and it went a lot better than the first, which I still need to write up). I picked this recipe because it looked like it would make cute little loaves, and one of my friends is a fan of blue cheese. It had also been a while since I made a bread with a significant amount of rye flour, and that one turned out a bit brick like. I had some trepidation starting this recipe because I had heard of many errors in the book (and experienced some of them in the first bread I made), but I didn't notice any glaring errors in this recipe.

This recipe is built on a stiff levain, which I definitely prefer, seem to get better results from it, and I already keep a stiff levain so no conversion needed. Once you have the starter build for the recipe you mix the bread flour (55%) and fine ground rye flour (45%) with the water and let the mixture autolyse for 20 minutes. After the autolyse the small portion of starter is incorporated into the dough and the salt sprinkled on top and kneaded in.

This was a dense and very sticky dough to knead, thanks mostly to the rye flour I would imagine. The new (large) cutting board I got to handle dough on seems to help make the sticky doughs easier to handle than the plastic mat I used previously though, I was able to get this dough kneaded well enough with minimal flour use. I wasn't expecting a huge rise with the dough, both from comments seen online and experience with how my starter likes to rise, and it was good I wasn't expecting much!

I couldn't find the cheese called for in the recipe locally so I picked out an interesting looking selection at my local Whole Foods, Hook's Cheese Company Blue Paradise:

It was a little tricky getting the 4 separate pieces of dough evenly sized because the dough was so sticky! A little dusting of flour to control that stickyness for weighing and I got my 4 roughly equal pieces, and preshaped them into little rectangles (it called for squares, but the dough didn't want to go that way). Each of the 4 got stuffed with cheese, rolled up into little loaves, and put in the loaf pans. I was initially surprised that this recipe calls for scoring before proofing, but I guess that helps it to open up a bit more to make a cavity for the cheese you place on top.

When it came time to bake, I changed up the instructions a bit. I preheated the oven to 500, used nearly boiling water instead of ice cubes, and then turned the heat down to the suggested temperature as soon as the loaves were in the oven (the ice cubes just don't work so well for me). These loaves smelled really great as they were baking!

After they had cooled a little bit, I brought one out to show the person I had baked them for more intending just that he could see and smell it, but it must've smelled really good because he took a big bite out of it! It was really good warm out of the oven like that, I also made a few slices into crostini the other day, topped them with pesto and chicken!

I am interested in trying some sourdough oat bread using steel cut oats.  I want to either add them raw in an overnight soaker or  cooked when I mix the final dough.  Any thoughts about the relative merits of these approaches?

Presumably I will need to add more water than usual in the soaker if I add them raw, as it sounds like they take up a lot of liquid.

I have two loaves proofing in my fridge right now.  I've heard that I can go directly from fridge to oven.

Questions:  How would I do that.  I normally bake a 2.5 pound loaf (78% hydration) en Cloche for 45 minutes at 425, 20 covered and 25 uncovered.

Do I modify the time?  Do I modify the temp?

Any insights and suggestions would be very helpful.

Thanks,

Thane

So, my absolute favorite breakfast is a nice half of a toasted baguette with butter and (preferably homemade) jam. But a close second is pretty much any type of breakfast pastry. Recently, I've been experimenting with using my sourdough starter in a few recipes. In this concoction, I made a basic sourdough recipe, added raisins and dried cranberries. After bulk fermentation, formed into thin worms, which I rolled in cinnamon sugar before forming the knot shape. I'm aiming for just a little sweetness with the sugar dusting, but didn't want to make a sweet dough. I haven't tasted them yet (saving for breakfast tomorrow) but the house smells delicious and I'm pretty excited.

Dough recipe: 1/2 c 100% hydration starter (fed last night), 1.5 c AP flour, 3/4 c white whole wheat flour, 1 1/4 c water, 1/2 c mixed raisins & dried cranberries. Mix & autolize 30 minutes, knead briefly. Then stretch and fold twice, at 20 min intervals. After the second S&F, fold in and knead dried fruit. Let rise until doubled--about 3 hours. Shape as described above (I divided into 6 rolls), then proof 40 minutes, and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Here are the rolls before going into the oven:

And the final result:

I am curious, as to why I have to throw out perfectly good starter in the feeding process. If I start out small enough, (I don't have to start with a cup of flour and one of water), could I not just feed it, adding to the starter and not throwing any out, at all?  I know that I will have massive amounts of starter, but, I am planning on making massive amounts of bread. My sisters and I will be baking all day long. I guess we plan on using up all the starter during our bread baking marathon. We have a large family, and they love our bread. We like being frugal and can't stand the thought of throwing something good out. Can anyone help us understand why we have to throw out the starter as we feed it? If it is thrown out due to the subsequent feedings creating a large volume, that is okay with us to have. We will use it up quickly.  Help!

Hi all:

I just finished baking an extended fermentation, 3-build, 25% WW, 25% rye, 50% Bread Flour this morning.  VERY happy with the outcome. 

Hour 0:

1/4 cup ripe starter

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup rye flour

1/3 cup WW flour

Hour 16-24:

All of Section 1 product (about 8 ounces)

8 ounces of water

8 ounces of rye flour

8 ounces of WW flour

Hour 40 to 48:

All of Section 2 product (32 ounces)

32 ounces of Bread Flour

22 ounces of water

1.5 tablespoons salt

1-1.5 tablespoon caraway (to taste)

Combine Section 2 product and water.  Mix well, whisking until frothy with air.  Add Bread Flour, salt and caraway.

Knead for 5 minutes (will be pretty sticky)

Autolyse for 20 minutes

Knead for another 3 minutes.

Bulk ferment until doubled (2-3 hours)

Divide into two 43 ounce portions.

Shape and proof (1.5 to 2 hours)

Bake en Cloche at 425 for 50 minutes, 23 covered, and 27 uncovered.

Hi, I am roasting some beautiful cloves of garlic (the house smells wonderful) and I am also in the process of warming up my starter for a couple of loaves. I was thinking of crushing the roasted cloves and adding them to my bread during the last few minutes of kneading. Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks, Maggie

This bread ended up being somewhat abused, but it still turned out very tasty and nice looking! I had planned out the day and while I had a meeting at school, that I was expecting to take quite a bit of time, things still ended up funky. My best estimate for when I would get home left the dough for this bread with about 2 to 3 hours left on the bulk ferment. As it turned out, I had to have my mom give the dough a quick stretch and fold for me and stick it in the fridge. But of course then things started moving fast, so it never should have gone in the fridge...

Why don't we go back to the start... The recipe for Pain de Campagne in the Bread Baker's Apprentice calls for a pate fermente, however, as I am wont to do, decided to make it as a sourdough (my first time making this recipe too, I always tell people not to do that). So I started the recipe out with a sourdough adaptation of the pate fermente, added some of my starter and subtracted an equivalent amount of water and flour from the recipe. I keep a stiff starter these days, I've found it easier to keep, work with, and get the flavor I want than a liquid starter like I used to have. Usually I put the starter in the water for the recipe and mix it fairly thoroughly to get a milky looking fluid with small bits of dough still in it.

Well, the next step is obviously to mix those ingredients together! I gave them a quick mix with my dough whisk, scraped the dough down into the bowl and left it to rest for 10-20 minutes. Not quite an autolyse since the dough has salt and wild yeast, but I find it still helps to make the dough more evenly hydrated and develop the gluten.

After the rest, time to turn it out and give it a quick kneading to make sure everything is well incorporated, and it was!

I forgot to take a picture of this step, shame on me, but I left the pate fermente to rise until about doubled, degassed it, and stuck it into the fridge to wait for making the final dough the next day. I purposely removed it from the fridge right before making the dough as I wanted the bulk ferment of the dough to proceed rather slowly. The recipe calls for bread flour, with a small portion of either whole wheat or rye, my starter already has some whole wheat flour in it so I decided to use rye flour in the final dough.

As with the pate fermente, I mixed the dough loosely and let it rest for a while to incorporate.

After kneading I wasn't sure if the dough was going to get bigger than the container it was in or not, so I stuck that container without lid in another larger bowl.

Around that picture is where I left from school, and well, I wasn't there for the stretch and fold so no pictures of that. And I was rushing too much for most of the rest of the baking process (I was also making prebaked pizza crusts for my dad), and sending good rise vibes to the dough. What helped a little bit was putting some hot water in the larger bowl the dough bucket was sitting in, sort of a little dough sauna.

Looking through the book, I opted for 3 different loaf shapes. Auvergnat, Tabatière, and Fougasse.

So, for dough that really got abused with the attempted retardation, then right back out of the fridge shortly thereafter, and baking after midnight when I needed to get up early, I was really happy with how this turned out! The flavor was really amazing, the second day after it was baked it was starting to get a bit more sour than what I generally prefer, but it was still really good.

And again, submitted to YeastSpotting this is becoming quite addicting!

Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge

Here is a link to an interesting article I found on the web.  This baker uses whole grains, sourdough, and sells his product at the local farmers market and by subscription.  I haven't tried his bread but I will at the next opportunity.  Prairie19

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11food-t.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss