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Son of SJSD, as batards

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Son of SJSD, as batards

Now enamored with stiff levains (until the next thrill comes along), this adventure had me bake a batch of SJSD dough.  But instead of as baguettes, I am also somewhat enamored with batards these days (until the next thrill comes along).

One with sesame, and one with two scores.  Both just for fun.  I'm curious as to whether the sesame will depart a roasted flavor to the bread as it does with the Sourdough Italian .  Still getting a lot of great performance out of retarding them on the couche already shaped, and baking straight from the refrigerator.

Using my stiff levain - hence the "Son of SJSD" moniker, and adding a few extra grams of water to balance out the hydration, these three batards come in at around 475g each. 480dF, 10 minutes steam, rotate and then ~16-18 minutes more.  The final 2 minutes as vented.

Through the "looking glass" during steaming

 

Steam released, and rotated

The trio

Getting some fantastic oven spring

The kids

Comments

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I am wondering what changes besides the firm levain and retardation of formed loaves you made. Would you outline the procedure you used?

And I hope you will post a crumb photo.

David

alfanso's picture
alfanso

I have to say that I'm really impressed at how well they came out.  In fact, everything that I've done this way except when the skin had warmed up a few bakes ago and was tearing like crazy while I attempted to score it.  And even those came out okay.  This will be a little long-winded, but as a former IT person, I guess that's just me being anal.

75% hydration, 60 AP, 20 WW, 20 Rye.  I'm starting out with the "discard" from prior levains, left in the same refrigerated container - never gets washed - cause I imagine that the ancient bugs in there are doing good, but really, who the heck knows?

  • I'll use that as my 1st build.
  • "2nd" build: Add ~100g** of new feed, mix, let sit for 10-15 minutes and remix to ensure distribution. This will double in about 2 hours.
  • "3rd" build: Remove ~50g-100g.  Feed again**, remix again.  This will double in 1-2 hours.

**or whatever it will take to bring my levain up to the necessary weight.

The discard from the 2nd build goes into another tupperware container.  I'll incorporate that into the existing discarded levain from prior builds.  As I mentioned earlier, I took dabrownmans' suggestion and used that accumulated discard for a different bread, with only a baby boost of 100g feed to give it some life.  And that worked fabulously as well.

I'll make a few dozen more grams levain than I need, and that will be what lives in the refrigerated container for the next set of builds.  They have legs and will certainly last for at least a few weeks.  If I were to extrapolate this scheme continuously, I'd never have to do a refresh - ever. 

Okay, so now I have my levain and I'll just follow the formula - in this case your SJSD, with some changes to the mix & ferment (that "make it your own thang" thing).  Except, as mentioned, I'll add a few more grams of water to compensate for the lower levain hydration.  For ~1500g I added 10g of water more.

  • water & levain - squish to incorporate
  • mix in flours - pinch & folds
  • "autolyse" for 20-30 minutes
  • mix in salt - pinch & folds
  • 300 French folds
  • 4 sets of letter folds at 25 minute intervals -  my kitchen runs about 78-80 degrees
  • a final 25 minutes, and then into the refrigerator for ~45-60 minutes
  • divide and rest 15 minutes
  • shape ala KA's Martin Philips (minute 6:30) and place on couche for overnight refrigerated retard ~12 hours.
  • bake at 480dF straight from refrigerator (after scoring, of course ;-) )
  • one pan of Sylvia's steaming towel with a 15 minute lead time, one pan of lava rocks w/~2 cups very hot water poured on them - after loading the oven.
  • 10 minutes steamed, then rotated after towel is removed, and then another ~16-18 minutes.

To me, still being a neophyte with levains, this has been extremely gratifying these past few weeks.  And I'm still feeling like I'm groping my way through this, but the confidence factor has started to kick in.

And I sincerely thank you for asking and for being an inspiration!

Crumb photo to follow...

alan

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

The subject was just to tweak the geek. ;-)

Ahem! Okay. Back to bread now.

Your reply did answer my main questions. Whatever you have done has stellar visual results. I wonder about flavor with the different fermentation approach. How would you compare the flavors of the "Son of" breads with the original? 

<Start of musings>

Clearly, Ken's calling the levain he says to discard "spent fuel" is an unfortunate choice of words. You have demonstrated how vigorous it can be with just a taste of fresh flour. I would wonder about flavor, except that you are going through 2 feedings of the "discard" which should cleanse the levain of most off-flavor byproducts, assuming each feeding at least doubles the levain. I do this myself sometimes, but never with leftover levain that is more than 3 or (rarely) 4 days since the preceding feeding. However, my other option is to start with my stored levain and put it through 2 to 3 feedings. Is that really different? Probably not. 

<End of musings>

Still waiting for crumb photos.

David

alfanso's picture
alfanso

These are two slices about 2-3 inches apart.  Open crumb, but not hugely so.  The surface of the crumb does exhibit some gelatinous shine.  I get the feeling that if I were to slice the batard horizontally, then a more obvious open crumb would appear.  Except for the fun of it, I can't quite say that I'm hung up on getting a really open crumb.  Maybe I just have crumb envy, Doc?

In the FWSY Field Blend #2 bake I did use mostly the discarded levain from a number of prior builds over a few weeks' time.  The formula calls for 360g levain, and I probably built about 400g, maybe a little more.  For that single build I used only 100g new feed, so the vast majority, let's say, 300g of the 360g was basically the discard.  And yet there was also some exceptional oven spring and no perceived off notes.

As far as flavor I just had a very small slice but the butter dominated.  I'll wait until my morning toast to get a better idea.  Most of what I bake is given away, else I'd have to grease down the door jambs to fit through!

alan

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

as good as they look.  Outstanding crumb for a 40% whole grain bread.  Well done and happy baking  - keep up the experiments!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

David's SJSD has a combined 11% whole grain.  As I'm adding a little more whole grain here through the levain itself, mine isn't pushing that %age much further.

The taste ins't quite as sparkling as the original on this one.  But then the original SJSD baguette has an awful lot more  (crust per tooth area squared / slice bite) * (baguette length / crumb) than this one does.

Anywho, here's what is left in my refrigerated container from this bread's levain build.  Under 100g which will remain just as is until I start the next build in that container.