The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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jey13's picture
jey13

Adding Levain Stage...How Flexible on the “When?”

I know there are those who dissolve starter (levain) into the water, add the flour, and there’s your dough (salt to be mixed in a little later). But there are also those who mix up flour and water, let it rest, then add in the starter (levain), and a little later the salt. 

Imagine you’re going to do it the latter way: create flour/water dough, then add in an overnight levain. You make the levain at, stay, 8pm. It’s ready to go at 8am...but you have to put off making the dough, and the levain isn’t going to be added till, say 1pm....

What do you do? And yes, I know the float test tells you if the levain is good to go, so maybe you test it...but will it still pass the float test several hours after it’s reached it’s high point? And if it doesn’t...what do you do? Do you have to feed it and wait another 6 hours? 

How flexible is the overnight levain when it comes to scheduling? If you have to adjust your schedule, will the levain be forgiving? 

Kernman's picture
Kernman

Semolina

Hello.. quick question. If I re-milled semolina will I have durum flour... thanks

dndrich's picture
dndrich

Increasing the fiber in my bread

Sourdough Pals:

I have been very happy with my daily loaf. Just terrific and easy to do. I use the Joshua Weissman recipe with slight variation as seen on YouTube. I've got it down. 

But now my wife really needs more fiber. That bread is maybe 20% Whole Wheat flour. So, I am thinking of increasing the whole wheat to 50%, but am also considering adding some 9 grain steel cut for more fiber. I am considering using something like this:

https://centralmilling.com/product/organic-steel-cut-cracked-9-grain/

How do I use this product? Do I need to soak it first? How much to add by weight or volume? 

My typical dough is 1000 gm for 2 loaves.

JohnAka's picture
JohnAka

reducing waste for sourdough

hi all, I'm a novice bread baker, trying to tackle sourdough and levain recipes. I have had modest success and am trying so hard to follow the directions exactly, but still not getting my Tartine levain breads right....

So now I I am trying the levin recipes from Flour Water Salt Yeast. Do you know why these starters and recipes call for so much to be thrown out? It is in grams, so why not just specify levin/flour/water in specific amounts to get to the proper amount? Does levain prefer to be made in quantity, and smaller amounts just don’t work as well? 

For example, let's start with the original recipe for the starter. Instead of thawing away 750 grams of starter on Day 2, why not just start with 125 grams each of flour and water (total 250 grams)? Or for the Pain de Campagne, instead of only keeping 360 grams of the 1000 grams of the newly-fed levain, why not just feed the enough mature levain with enough flour and water to get 360 grams? 

I understand how in a large bakery, none of this goes to waste, but this book and most other bread books are written for the home. I'm using some premium flour (Thanks local growers!), so this really adds up. 

thanks! 

Theairportrun's picture
Theairportrun

Help with new recipe idea... Rye Leaven included!

hi all,

i’ve been successfully baking low hydration sourdoughs with large amounts of leaven (i like to speed up the process as i dont have all day!).

i want to start upping the hydration , autolysing and doing stretch and folds to achieve more open and softer crumb.

can anyone comment on the potential issues I might have in changing methods etc? I use high proofer temp to speed the process up a bit (brod & taylor) and also use a lot of leaven for the same reason...

 

previous method was;

 

Pain dé Campagne

 

900g White Flour (weak)

100g Wholewheat Flour

400g Rye Leaven 

20g Salt

550g Water (warm)

 

 

  • Set proofer to 30 Degrees C
  • Mix and knead ingredients until windowpane 
  • Prove for 2 hours
  • Shape - prove for 1 hour (pre-heat oven)
  • Bake 210 degrees c(fan) 20 mins with steam, 25 mins without

 

 

proposed method is;

Pain dé Campagne

 

900g White Flour (weak)

100g Wholewheat Flour

400g Rye Leaven 

20g Salt

700g Water (warm)

 

 

 

  • Set proofer to 30 
  • Autolyse flour & 650g water for 1 hour
  • Mix in leaven, salt and remaining 50g water
  • Stretch & fold 4 times w/ 30 min intervals (2 hours total)
  • Pre-shape - wait 20 mins
  • Shape - prove for 1 hour (pre-heat oven)
  • Bake 210 (fan) 20 mins with steam, 25 mins without

 

the hadster's picture
the hadster

The Challenger Bread Pan - has anyone tried it other than our own Trevor Wilson?

I was just glancing through Trevor Wilsons Instagram and I came across this bread pan, and I want it.

My problem with the Lodge Combo Pot for baking bread is the size, its small and so the loaf can only be so big...

THIS bread pan looks fabulous.

I was wondering if any of you were on the advanced distribution list and what your thoughts were.

Hadley

Julian Locke's picture
Julian Locke

Total failure after moving

Back at home in Boston, I was churning out fairly successful tartine style loaves every weekend, following recipe in tartine book 1. See an example below. 

I've since moved to durham NC, started a new starter, and following the same recipe, am producing terrible loaves, with seemingly no yeast activity at all (see title image). My starter is thriving, my leaven is passing the float test, I'm not sure what is going wrong. Has anyone experienced anything like this? I'll detail the process followed below just incase something is off. I don't see how this process is leading to such extreme failures.

Starter maintenance: fed twice daily at 9am + pm. New started is 1:3:3, so 30g old starter, 90g water, 90g flour (sometimes 50 150 150).



On the day of a bake, at 9am I'll take a tablespoon of the starter and mix it with 200g 50/50 flour and water, and store at 82 degrees until it passes the float test, usually around 4pm. 

At 4pm I mix 200g of leaven with 900g white flour, 100g whole wheat flour, 700g 80 degree water, auto in 82 proof box for 30 min.

Then add 50g water + 20g salt, back in proof box until 10 pm, stretch and folds every 30 minutes for first two hours.

Shape at 10 pm (6 hour bulk), fridge until morning, then bake in combo cooker at 500 for 20, 450 for 10, then uncovered for 20. Result:



Am I missing something silly here? I'm completely baffled. I was consistently making good bread using this technique.

Rhody_Rye's picture
Rhody_Rye

Two of my prettiest sourdough loaves

50% rye boule (with orange zest, fennel, and caraway) on the left, 30% khorasan lemon rosemary on the right, both sourdough.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

HELP - Oxidizer vs Antioxidant RE: Ascorbic Acid

I would like to better understand the affects of Ascorbic Acid in bread dough. But what I read is confusing.

In the article https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/ascorbic-acid/ it states, “In baking, it is used as an oxidizing agent for dough mixing.“

But further research states this. “Vitamin C (ascorbic acid (AA)) is very popular for its antioxidant properties.” Here is the article. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304416501002355

Confusion - Oxidation and Antioxidant seem to be opposites.

Definitions

Definition of oxidize

 

transitive verb

1: to combine with oxygen Other chemicals then oxidize the sulfur dioxide to form sulfuric acid, which along with the nitric acid increases the acidity of the dewdrop    
  •  Definition of antioxidant

     

    : a substance (such as beta-carotene or vitamin C) that inhibits oxidation or reactions promoted by oxygen, peroxides, or free radicals

I imagine the answer will be technical. I hope it can be explained in such a way that a simple minded person can understand. I am curious to learn...DannySorry, the copy and paste didn’t work (format) properly.
  1.  

 

helios123's picture
helios123

Sourdough in bread machine (bake in oven)

How would go about making sourdough in a bread machine but baking in normal oven?  I've got a typical bread machine with set programs.  Can anyone outline general procedure as to how to do it?  I'm relatively new to baking. 

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