For several months now, I have been baking whole wheat breads based on recipes in Peter Reinhart's latest book. For the most part, I have met with success.

 I am now attempting to modify these recipes to accomplish two goals: to eliminate commercial yeast from my breads, and to simplify the baking schedule (which includes using less equipment, making less mess, and adjusting the rise times to occur while I'm at work).

I wanted to share some techniques with those of you who might have similar goals. It's quite simple, and probably nothing new to those of you who have been baking a while.

First, I followed Peter's recipes for whole wheat bread, replacing the "biga" with sourdough starter. Instead of adding yeast in the final mix, though, I simply let it rise all day while I was at work (about 10 hours). This accomplished two goals: first, obviously, no commercial yeast. Second, I was able to jump right into shaping when I got home, since the first rise was accomplished throughout the day. This cut a good 2-3 hours off my after-work baking schedule.

Second, instead of using baking stones, I preheated a large, cast-iron skillet in a 500F oven. This eliminated the need to use a utensil (like a peel or baking sheet) to transport the dough from the bowl to the oven, as well as eliminated the need for baking stones. Additionally, I think the skillet retains heat better than the baking stones, and since the transfer needs to take place outside the oven, I think it actually gives the dough a bit of a head start on rising. You get all the benefits of "oven spring," but without having to worry about the bread forming a crust too soon.

I tried this for the first time yesterday, and ended up with my first loaf of whole wheat bread made entirely without commercial starter. The crumb was moist and full of holes, but not grainy, mushy, or too chewy. My only complaint is that the bread was much too tart for my own taste. It really overwhelmed all the other flavors. It wasn't bad, but it's just not to my liking. I'm not sure if this is due to the long, 10-hour rise, or to an overly-acidic starter. I'm inclined to believe the latter, because my starter smelled very strongly of alcohol and vinegar. However, it rose beautifully, so I know it's active.

Anyway, please let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Joseph 

I just thought I would share the recipe I came up with for the quinoa flour. I incorporated it into one of my other recipes I created a while back. It isn't a high percent of quinoa, but it sure does come through in the bread. This is not a gluten free recipe.

Honey Grain Bread

2 3/4 cups water (1/4 c. used to proof yeast)
1 T. Salt
5 T. Butter or Olive Oil
5 T. Honey (use 1 T. in proofing yeast)
3 cups Bread Flour
1 cup Quinoa Flour
1 cup Flax Flour
2 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/3 cups Quick Cook Oats
5 t. yeast
2 T. vital gluten

Set to ferment over night or longer
2 1/2 c. water
2 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
2 c. bread flour

I proofed my yeast in 1/4 c. warm water, 1 T. honey, 5 t. yeast.

I proof the yeast while I am adding the other ingredients to my mixer bowl that has the fermented flour in it. Sometimes depending on the amount of moisture in the air I have had to add an extra 1/4 c. of flour.

I set my mixer to mix for 12 minutes, but keep an eye on it. I have noticed that when I have let my fermented flours go for longer then 12 hours or so then it takes a lot less mixing to work the gluten up.

Once the dough has been mixed and is looking smooth and stretchy I like to scrape it out of the mixer bowl and kneed if for a little bit to see how it feels. Even though I enjoy my mixer I still like to kneed the dough. It is a great way to releave stress. Anyways, I set it aside now in a greased bowl and cover and let rise for 2.5 to 3 hours, until it doubles in size. I have been told I should let it rise twice before shaping it and placing on a baking pan or in a bread pan, but so far I have only done a single rise before placing in the pans. Then I slit the tops with a razor blade and let rise covered for 1 hr. (Next time I am going to try a little longer rise in the pans and also try a double rise before shaping.

I had put them in a cold oven and turned the oven to 400 degrees for 10 minutes, turned it down to 350 degrees after that and let bake an additional 25 minutes. They did not get a spring in the oven at all so I think I will put them in a warmed oven next time because that is how I normal do it, but wanted to try something different this time.

The bread was not heavy at all and has a delightful nutty flavor and when toasted it melts in the mouth and has a great crunch to it. We have not been able to keep the bread very long as it is gobbled up long before I usually make my next batch of bread. I might double this recipe for 4 loaves instead, but I do enjoy baking.

A few things I want to try with this next time as well is getting a stone for the oven and doing artisan loaves with it again. This might sound strange, but the artisan loaves had much more flavor then the loaves in the pan.

I'm a telecommuter who works from home, and I bake bread for my family two to three times a week. Occasionally, I'll make a loaf with commercial yeast, but typically, I make sourdoughs. Also, on the weekend, I like to make sourdough English muffins and sourdough waffles.

Keeping my starter in the fridge meant I was constantly trying to remember when I needed to take the stuff out to rev it up for bread, and I'd often realize too late that I didn't have enough starter for the muffins or waffles.

After some tinkering, I finally decided to keep the starter on the counter and feed it once or twice a day, which means I've always got at least enough active starter for my overnight whole grain sourdough, and, if I'll need more for a daytime sourdough, I've got enough to seed a bigger amount that can ripen while I sleep. The regimen that I now follow also has the advantage of not wasting anything, because I use all the extra starter stored in the fridge to make all the waffles and English muffins I want. Since both of these recipes derive most of their rise from the interaction of acids and baking soda, using week-old starter from the fridge has enough oomph for leavening and flavor, given that it's gotten pretty acidic already.

Anyway, I'm not saying this is the way to maintain a starter - it's just what works for me at this time in my life, at least for my primary whole wheat starter. (I also keep a rye starter and some white Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail starter in the fridge that I only take out when I want to bake special breads.)

I usually feed it twice a day, once in the morning and once again before bed. Sometimes I forget, though, and only feed it once a day, but it doesn't seem to mind much. I keep it at 60% hydration, which is pretty stiff, but I find it's less messy and stands up a bit better that the wet stuff would to a missed feeding here and there, due to my forgetful nature. Here's how I feed it (it's a 1-3-5 ratio for starter-water-flour).

In the morning, it looks like this.



It hasn't risen much, but it feels puffy, and when I break it open, it's clearly aerated inside.

It weighs about 45 grams, so I take 5 grams of it (about the size of a small marble) ...



... and put the rest in my fridge bowl. These leftovers will find their way into waffles or English muffins later in the week.



Then I add 15 grams of water and mush it up until it's soft and the water has turned somewhat milky in color.



Then I add 25 grams of whole wheat flour.



Finally, I mix it all up with a spoon, take it out and knead it a bit in my hands, which consists of folding it over on itself four or five times. I then roll it into a ball, snap on the lid and let it work.



That's it. I've found it's not that much of a hassle to feed it twice a day and is much less annoying than realizing I can't make a sourdough because I forgot to take my starter out of the fridge and feed it. Since the overnight sourdough I make requires just 40 grams of stiff starter, I'm pretty much always set.

Anyway, it works for me.

One note: for what it's worth, I haven't detected any difference in flavor or performance for the starter on the counter vs starter rev'd up from the fridge.

Second note: Since I'm working with stiff starter, I increase the liquid in both the sourdough muffins and waffles by about 1/4 cup or so.

I've been absent from TFL recently, as work and home have eaten up just about every waking minute, and there have been far too many waking minutes in the past couple of months. I could have stood for a tad more sleeping minutes.

Nevertheless, a family has to eat, so I've still been baking. One thing I learned: Don't double the amount of salt in a bread recipe. I did this by accident, doing the math for 2% in my head and adding 20 grams instead of 10 grams. Not even the birds would eat this stuff. Yuck.

I have had some nice loaves come out of the oven, however. Last week, I made the same doubling error as before, but with the starter. I used a 40% innoculation instead of 20% for this largely white flour sourdough (I added 10% whole wheat). All in all, the loaf was fine, though it wasn't as flavorful as I'd have liked. Rose quickly though, and looked beautiful.





I also revived my rye starter to make a 40-30-30 rye to whole wheat to white flour loaf. I didn't add caraway, and missed it, actually.

Starter is amazingly resiliant stuff. I'd not fed it for months (probably three at least ... maybe even four), and it had acquired a nasty black crust that could have been mold, could have been hoochy gunk (the rye is kept at 100% hydration, but it's still pretty pasty rather than liquid). In any case, it started right back up and made a wonderfully sour rye loaf. The shaped dough stuck a little bit to the baker's linen, so I had to slash it strangely to incorporate the rip and avoid a blown out side. Turned out OK, though, in the end.



And, of course, I regularly make my standby overnight whole grain sourdough hearth loaf (60% whole wheat, 30% whole spelt, 10% whole rye. The secret to getting a good "grigne" I think is not to proof it too long. Two to two-and-one-half hours seems to be just about right.





Mmmmmm. Grilled cheese sandwiches on whole grain sourdough hearth bread.

Why is my sandwich loaf splitting?: I followed the one stage sourdough recipe I found on this site.  I used freshly ground whole wheat only.  I also followed JMonkey's shaping video. Well I probably made some errors since I don't know yet why and how the loaf is optimized. SO what happened? Why did it split so much?

Also why could i only slice it quite thick?  Could it have been too freshly out of the oven? 

Here is a picture of the slice;

loaf slices

I found this recipe here on the boards.  It was called Sourdough Guy's one stage sourdough bread.  I used the exact quantities given with whole wheat.  It requires so little labour and it actually allows you to soak your flour for long enough that I think it must meet the requirements of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, but it produces a loaf that is incredibly light.  I am so happy because I have been trying to make the healthiest bread possible out of wheat flour and yet I wanted it to be light for sandwiches and buns. 

My one problem now is that it is quite sour.  My husband loves it and I think we will get used to it, but is there a way to make it less sour? 

 The recipe: 

Take 20-35 grams of active starter and disolve it in 765g of low chlorine or filtered water.  Add to the water and starter, 1090 grams of flour and 20g of salt. Mix the salt into the flour first.  Stir until all the flour is wet and set aside for an hour.  Tip the dough out onto the counter and do a "french fold" or do a "letter fold" 4 or 5 times. Put into a clean oiled container and allow to double.  This should take around 16 to 20 hours.  After it has doubled turn it out shape and allow to proof 4 hours or so and bake as normal.  This recepie makes a 70% dough.  I have found that 35 grams of my starter will double after 16 hours on a 70 degree day.  I scaled back to 20 grams or so to get the full 20.  Cool thing about this is you can throw it together 8 or 9 pm.  let it set until 4 or 5 the next day, shape and bake around 9 or 10pm.  If you make it with cold water I imagine you could stretch the fermentation time out even longer.  I also sometimes give it a second folding the first night if I think it needs it.  This bread also has wonderful flavor as well.  Hope this helps.

Da Crumb Bum 

I have to start off by saying that this was a very rewarding learning experience and I hope to be able to articulate some of what I learned by making this miche.

Sourdough chocolate cherry bread has become a Valentine's Day tradition around our house.

I just got this from KA and thought folks might be interested to see it: