The Fresh Loaf

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First Bread experience

muddypaws87's picture
muddypaws87

First Bread experience

So It was my first attempt to bake a couple breads from a starter this weekend. 
I found two recipes on this site (Sorry I cant remember who originally posted them) and decided to jump into the sourdough world. 

The first recipe consisted of
450g AP Flour
25g Rye Flour
25g WW Flour (I used Red Fife)360g Water
10g Salt
100g starter at 100% hydration

My process was to mix the starter, water, and flour together and let it autolyse for 40 minutes.  Then I folded the salt in.  For the first 90 minutes I had it sit on my counter while giving it a few stretch and folds every half hour.  At this time I put it into the fridge until the next day.  It stayed in the fridge for about 13 hours.  I divided the dough into two pieces and shaped them into a batard (which I suck at shaping haha).  I let them proof on the counter for about an hour.The first one went into the oven on a hot pizza stone and was cooked but It didn't rise like I wanted to.  So for the second one I waited a few hours longer for it to rise on the counter as it was still cold from being in the fridge all night.  The second batard came out much much better and with a better rise.  I definitely need to work on scoring and shaping - much harder then I thought it would be!!!

This was the first attempt at the batard.  It didnt have the oven rise I wanted but I figured out it was probably because I put it into the oven without proofing it long enough after it being in the fridge.  So it was cold going into the oven.  The second batard was about double that height. 


The Second Batard
This is a picture of the second batard.  It tasted great.  The shape and scoring kind of sucked though.  I didnt get a picture of the crumb though unfortunately. 

 

Now onto the next recipe. 
This recipe was from the handbook and it was a total disaster. 
300g of WW flour (I used Red Fife)
150g of Spelt Flour
50g of Rye Flour
50g of starter at 100% hydration
375g Water
10g Salt

Once again, I mixed the water, starter and flour together and let it autolyse for about an hour.  I then folded in the salt.  I let it sit on the counter for about 4 hours with a stretch and pull every half hour. It felt very wet sticky and hard to handle. It then went into the fridge for the night - about 13 hours.  It looked and felt great and had good rise when I took it out of the fridge. I let it sit on the counter until it became room temp (like how I did for that second batard earler). I tried to flip it out of a banneton basket and since the bread was so wet  - a whole bunch of it stuck to the basket (even though I did flour the heck out of it).  From then i tried to reshape and let it rise back up but it never did.  I lost hope.  I put it in the oven anyway and it was just a flat bread disc.  So Disappointing.  But I guess for my first attempt at bread making this was pushing my ability! Ah well.  I never took any photos. 

I will have to try and make some more bread next weekend.  :)

 

 

jcope's picture
jcope

I think it's a great result, and the crumb looks very nice.  Much better than my first attempt.

Flavor-wise, you may get improved results by extending the fermentation time.  At the ~10% fermentation in your recipe, you could have gone as long as ~140 hours in the fridge (at 37degrees) to get to full fermentation. 

Assuming your house is at 68 degrees, after 13hours in the fridge, you can give it up to 5 more hours on the counter to complete the fermentation.  Then the shaping, then proof for 90 to 120minutes.

It seems to be the consensus that the more time you give it in the fridge, the better the flavor.

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Looks pretty good, actually! Shaping and scoring is an art, and you'll be so excited when it turns out how you like it, you'll post all kinds of pictures and show it to strangers! :)

How long did you bake it, and at what temperature?

Check out Ken Forkish's videos on Youtube. The one on shaping has some good tips for handling very wet dough. I made one of his loaves this morning (the Overnight White) and, though it was very slack dough, I managed to form fairly tight boules on a well-floured counter, so it is possible! I baked them in cast iron pots; not sure I would have been brave enough to try free-standing batards with this one.

muddypaws87's picture
muddypaws87

I baked it at 475 for 40 minutes

For a first attempt It turned out alright and I cant be too disappointed. 

I will definitely check out the Ken Forkish videos - thanks!

If anyone has good recipes or tips for using rye, spelt and red fife that would be great.
Im hoping to bake again later this week. woohoo