Latest sourdough bake

Just chronicling my progress with new techniques.  

After a discussion with Dabrownman about his Lucy-inspired bread from the Blog section, I decided to give something a try:  Instead of viewing my mother starter as overly mature and in need of refreshing, I looked at it as a starter that had had a 3-week cold retard.

When I took it out of the fridge, I poured 100g straight (still cold) into the bowl with 500g flour, 350g water, and 10g Kosher salt.  It was kind of a leap of faith, as I have never added my starter to a bread without feeding it up for a couple days first.  Still experiencing winter weather here, and we turn the heat down when we sleep at night, so I just left it on the counter overnight with an average ambient temperature of ~60-65F.

The next morning it had not expanded much, but I figured what the heck and kept treating it as if it was still a viable project.  I did stretch and folds every 45 min times four, then formed it into a batard.  After the last stretch and fold it was finally starting to get nice and bubbly, so I was as careful as possible with the shaping.  I let it proof for about 2 hours, and it had increased in size maybe 50-75%, but definitely not doubled.

My slashes went in at about 60 degrees off the horizontal and opened up nicely but when it baked, the inner dough rose up to meet the level of the skin.  There was clearly a differential appearance between the skin and inner dough colors, but it just didn't have nice pretty ears.  The slashes served their structural purpose though, as the rest of the crust stayed nice and tight with no blowouts.  I think next time I'll go back to my regular practice of coming in at a shallower angle, like 10-15 degrees, with the blade gliding just under the skin.  Do you think proofing it longer might have improved the ears?

 I had been making turkey soup during the day and it was coming down to dinner time when the bread came out of the oven.  Couldn't have the soup without the bread, right?  So I set the loaf on a rack and pointed a fan at it.  I was totally shocked at the final product.  It actually had a nice chewy crust with big irregular holes in the crumb, and the inner surface of the holes had that sought-after sheen.  And the flavor was just right - just tangy and aromatic enough to say "sourdough" on the tongue, but not overpoweringly so.

I thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience and outcome from trying something different with the starter, and I plan to do this again.  I just need to tweak it a little as far as the slashes and ears.  If anybody has any thoughts on the best approach for this I'd love to hear them.

  --Mike