Plain ole sourdough 3lb loaf
Hello!
As a newbie, I've begun paying a lot more attention to my starter + preferment ripeness levels, timings, keeping a log, etc. Today I baked a big (for me) single loaf of 3lbs (68% overall hydration, 1/3 of the flour pre-fermented, all white KAF Bread Flour). Yesterday, I caught both my starter and subsequent levain at just their peak of ripeness, mixed the final dough, and bulk fermented at 50F for about 14 hours. I intentionally under-mixed the dough in my stand mixer (I did appx 770 revolutions of the dough hook, normally would do mid-900 revolutions), because I wanted to see if the extended time spent in the chiller would complete the development by itself. After the 14 hours in the chiller, the dough was plenty extensible, but not so much elastic. I did a couple S&Fs, which brought some elasticity (strength?) to the dough, but I think it was still a little under-developed. I went ahead with it anyway to see what would happen. I took the entire 3lb dough and shaped it into a large log / roll, let it rest for 15 mins, scored one long slice, then baked it on my oven baking stone, with 8 seconds of steam, vented after 20 mins. I initially had the oven at 500F but backed off to 460F and further to 425F, about 45 mins total baking time. Bread temp was 206F after coming out of the oven, maybe a little low. I've never baked a single loaf this large before.
The entire downstairs of the house filled with a wonderful aroma of baking sourdough bread. I think I got a pretty good oven spring, but the crumb isn't the most open in the world. I only cut it once vertically for the picture -- not going to cut it horizontally to check the crumb because I'm keeping this for eating. It has a nice sourdough flavor, and good chewing texture. Will make a perfect dinner bread. :-)
Next time I will mix a little bit longer, my normal ~950 revolutions.
Comments
I wouldn't complain too much about that crumb: I think it is nice and open. Also, judging from your profile shot, your elasticity was ok as it didn't slump too much. You got tremendous oven spring. You could consider final proofing a little longer. Nice bake. :)
regards
Syd
Looks like a good crumb for a loaf that size to me.
Thanks Syd + Breaddington!
For the last couple of breads I did an overnight cold bulk fermentation, after I shaped, I let it do a final rest/rise for 30 mins. I've also tried letting it do a final proof for 1 and 1.5 hours, but that seems too long as the oven spring is less and the crumb is mostly closed (but very "fluffy"). Still good eats (to me)!
This time, I only did the final proof for 15 mins because it began to lose its shape just sitting there, so I figured I should bake it quick before it flattened out entirely. I don't know for sure, but I think if I had developed the dough a bit more, it wouldn't have begun to flatten out during the final proof (as much), and I could have proofed it a little longer. Definitely, the next bake I will do everything the same as this attempt, but mix a little bit more.
I am still tickled that this little sourdough culture I managed to raise from scratch, even after a couple of weeks, is able to rise a big bread and make it taste great! Amazing. :-)
So I heated up -- I know it is blasphemy, a microwave turkey pot pie, but mixed it wth my bread.
:)
A little tiny bit of butter, and it was "da bomb". :-)
Beautiful bread, if you can bake that you can easily make homeade pot pie!!!