The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Last weekend's bake: "In the Spirit of FWSY Sourdough bread" and Blueberry Muffins

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Last weekend's bake: "In the Spirit of FWSY Sourdough bread" and Blueberry Muffins

Wifely complement of the week: "What do you call this bread … so I know how to ask you to make it again?" Well, I couldn’t think of what to call it. I have made it before … sort of. It is based on Forkish’s “Pain de Campagne” from FWSY, except with a different flour mix, no commercial yeast and a different fermentation schedule. I’ve generally called such breads “in the spirt of …” whatever my starting point was.

Anyway, it is awfully good bread - very moist, wheaty and only mildly sour.

 

 

Since it is still berry season, and we have been getting really tasty, local, organic blueberries, I also made some muffins.

 

 

Happy baking!

David

Comments

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I love the crumb! Do you mind sharing your flour mix?

Edo Bread's picture
Edo Bread

Some of my best loaves have been "in the spirit of"! I hope you are better about documenting the changes than I am. Nice looking loaf!

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I am pretty good about documenting ingredients. Procedures vary too much according to the flours, temperature, levain vigor, etc. 

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

The levain flour mix is Forkish's usual 75% Bread Flour and 25% Whole Wheat. My flour mix for the final dough is 500 g AP, 200 g WW and 100 g Whole Rye.

David

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I have been experimenting with mixes and tend to put many different kinds in my loaves. I remember reading (I believe it was on Breadwerx by TJ Wilson) that a delicious mix is one part rye to two parts wholewheat or spelt. No wonder your wife liked it. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

more.  Well done as usual.  My daughter made strawberry muffins last weekend and I asked her why strawberry instead of blueberry and she said because they smelled better?  I'm trying to think if blueberries ever smell better than strawberries....they were pretty good even though my wife put water a pan in the bottom of the oven telling my daughter 'your Dad always puts water in the oven when he bakes bread' :-)  They took forever and didn't brown very well.  Couldn't figure it out - thought the new oven was broken already!  Yours look great.

Happy baking David

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Looks very nice!

Ru

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Very nice, David.

 

 

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I am very bad about note taking...I try and then get absorbed in what I am doing and the next time I try to replicate I see that I have not documented as well as one would hope ! Ah well...always something new and my audience is quite amenable to change:) Lovely baking as usual !  c

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

I always treat recipes as inspiration to come up with my own but I'm very bad at making notes, but I'm lucky cause I retain 90% of the new information in my mind though still not scientific for a serious baker.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I am pretty conscientious about documenting what I do. My problem is that I make so many different breads that I often forget I have ever made a particular one after a few months. I commonly make a bread, find it good, promise myself to make it often, then search TFL and find I baked the same bread and made the same promise 3 years before.

Just one of the side effects of "so many breads; so little time." 

David

Winemonkey's picture
Winemonkey

Hi David,

I've been visiting TFL for about 6 months and have to say that your breads are truly inspirational. I've learned a lot from reading your entries and using your formulae. Now I'm ready for my first question/comment. 

My first bread book was FWSY and I've tried most of the breads, and I always have a problem with the doughs that are in the hydration range of 75% and above.  I follow Forkish's suggestions on folds, sometimes throwing in an extra, and I end up with puddles of dough that I'm frantically trying to shape in the kitchen while my wife and son think I must be wrestling with a greased pig by the sounds of effort and frustration that are emanating from my mouth. If I keep the doughs in the 70-72% range I'm very satisfied with the outcome, and no strange looks from the other room. In fact, I just made Pain de Capagne from FWSY the other day using 70/20/10 AP/WW/rye at 71% hydration (instead of the written 78%) and it was one of my best breads.

My question for you is, do you get up to 75% or better hydration with your "FWSY inspired" doughs (or other breads) as Forkish suggests in his formulae, and if so, what am I missing when it comes to working with said doughs?

Thank you,

Eric

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

but I am wondering if it has to do with the flour you are using. Canadian flour absorbs more than American flour and much more than UK flour. The authors of Artisan bread in 5 minutes suggest that people using Canadian flour add an extra 1/4 cup of water to their dough so it isn't something I just made up. It could simply be that your flour performs better at a lower hydration.

Lately, I am sticking to 75 to 78 % hydration for my bread. That seems to work well for me. I was really struggling with the Tartine breads but since I reduced the hydration, the results are much better. 

Just a thought to consider. 

Winemonkey's picture
Winemonkey

Thank you for your response.  I do bake with American flour, so I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing in order to make breads that my family and I like.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

This bread followed the FWSY Pain de Campagna formula except for the flour mix. So, with proportionately more whole grain flour, the functional hydration would be a bit less than with mostly white flour. 

I have never wrestled a greased pig, but I've wrestled lots of very high hydration doughs, mostly in the 75-78% hydration range but some higher.  They are more challenging to handle, but provide several rewards that make the struggle worthwhile. Many of the issues are covered in this tutorial: Scoring Bread made with high-hydration dough. I would say that the following are the most important tips;

1. Dough handling: Keep hands and the board protected from dough stickiness by flour, water or oiling. Each has its fans. When touching wet dough, use very rapid movements. Don't linger. Contacts between the dough and you should be as brief as possible. A new discovery for me: I have developed some "baker's dermatitis" on the palms of my hands. This can be due to just drying, but it can also be an allergic reaction to alpha amylase. I have been using some non-latex food safe disposable gloves for dough handling. Dough sticks to these gloves much less than to skin. Dipping gloved hands in water periodically makes them even less sticky.

2. Complete gluten development is really important: Use machine mixing, slap and fold or stretch and fold, but get your wet dough as strong as you can. My own preferred method is stretch and fold in the bowl. This is described in Hamelman's bread in the recipe for "no-knead French Bread" (or something like that). Mark Sinclair made of video of his method here: NoKnead.html. Another technique that can assist gluten development in wet dough is "double hydration." Essentially, do your initial mixing and gluten development using only 80% of the water (more or less). Then add the rest of the water and work it into the dough.

3.Good shaping is essential. That means, not just a pleasing shape, but more importantly formation of a tight gluten sheath to help prevent spreading out during proofing.

4. Provide good lateral support to the loaf during proofing: Use bannetons or a couche.

Well, that is enough to think about.  Don't give up, but do recognize that wet dough is different and more demanding. I think it's worth the effort (and frustration) to learn to handle it.

Happy baking!

David

Winemonkey's picture
Winemonkey

Wow, thank you very much for the suggestions. I will try again (and again), as it has been my understanding from reading entries on this site that there is definite reward in higher hydration dough breads. 

Eric

beurre's picture
beurre

I gave this recipe a try and it turned out wonderfully - my partner also loved it and said that it was his ideal sourdough.

We didn't have any rye flour left, so I sifted some rolled rye that had been ground with a coffee grinder and ended up with something a bit more like a fine meal than a flour. The end result was delightfully moist and sour (more so than my previous experiments with rye flour). I'm still practicing scoring loaves, so please forgive the strange appearance:

(Crumb shot + roommate review pending!)

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

This has remained my favorite everyday bread for a really long time now. In fact, I have the levain fermenting to make a couple loaves right now. I'll refrigerate the ripe levain overnight and mix the dough tomorrow to bake the following day.

Looking forward to seeing your crumb and hearing how you find the flavor.

Thanks for sharing!

David

beurre's picture
beurre

The crumb wasn't as open as yours above, but all 11 of my roommates approved heartily. It was tangy and nutty and slightly sweet. Perfect on it's own or with homemade plum jam. Thanks for such a lovely recipe, David!

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Eleven roomates, eh? I hope everyone got a slice, anyway. ;-)

David