Today's Bake after a long summer off

I haven’t posted in over a year.  To busy baking and doing the necessary every day life things until May and  my arm had a bit of an old man’s problem requiring surgery in August (broken bone spur with complications).  All is better now and really I needed to bake some sourdough bread.  I used Susan’s Simple Sourdough  Formula, here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13771/simple-sourdough-909. I have baked this bread before, but today I had to make a couple of changes.

Because I didn’t have High Gluten Bread Flour, I used Regular Bread flour. No white whole wheat so I used regular Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat other than having add some AP it was business as usual.

Final Formula: 

100g    Starter 67%

408 g   Water

550 g    Bread Flour

50 g      Whole Wheat

63 g       AP Flour

Susan’s formula didn’t use AP but my dough was too wet and wouldn’t come together and I had put the bread flour away.  So I added a little AP four (63g).  Kneaded to a good window pane in KA.  Wish I had an Electrolux or 10 qt globe. Bulk fermented for about 4 hours as the winter weather is here.  Punched down and put it on my enclosed back porch (about 52 degrees F) over night.

 Formed into Boule this morning.   Put back on the porch.  Had to go to town. Got home about 3 this afternoon.  It probably spent 18 hours on the porch. Brought in and let it warm for about an hour and half. Slashed the top. Baked covered with an aluminum pan. Sprayed the inside of the pan with water and a couple of squirts on the bread. Oven and stone heated to 450 degrees F.  Turned down to 425 after fifteen minutes.  Removed the pan and baked another half hour.   Inside temp 195 degrees.

I cut it this evening after it cooled.  My wife smelled warm bread when it came out and wanted to cut it but I waited until about 8:30 PST.  Crust is chewy  and the crumb is soft but chewy.  The long ferment gave this bread a great sour taste that I have striving for. 

Some shots of the crust, Just out of the oven. Looking Good.

Crumb Shot

All in all it was a great bake after a long summer lay off.  Next is 100% sourdough whole wheat.  The whole wheat starter is on the second build.  Hard to deal with store bought whole wheat.  Too dry, too soft, and no flavor.  Just my humble opinion. 

Could never have done without the info that this site has provided.  This is an awesome site by some very talented people.  Thanks for the help.

Ray