The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Saying Hi from Poland

Paladine's picture
Paladine

Saying Hi from Poland

Hey everyone,

I am an English ex-pat living in Poland and today I am using my sourdough starter for the first time.  I am making a whole grain sourdough with 64% hydration and hoping it works out well.  I will know tomorrow when I bake it - nice to meet you all.

Paladine

jameseng's picture
jameseng

Best of luck.

Paladine's picture
Paladine

OK so baked the first loaf from my starter - it didn't get much of a rise and I over-proofed it a little.  Also didn't have my oven on the right setting (new apartment so wasn't sure how to setup the oven.  But it did cook and it is edible.

Need to get some decent white flour but all the packaging is in Polish so it is difficult to find the right one (they have dozens of flours in the supermarket here), I don't think wholemeal was a good choice for the first loaf on a young starter (14 days old).

I had my oven on fan assist heating from top and bottom but I just found the manual and it has an option for cooking from bottom with fan assist which is recommended for baking (so as not to dry out the top) so I might try that next time.

I have some quarry tiles in my car which I was going to use to bake on but my car is currently in the shop and I forgot to take the tiles out first - so next time :)

Cooking temps are a little difficult for me - the guide I followed on NorthWest Sourdough stated to heat the oven at 500f (which I believe is around 260C) and then reduce the temp to 450f (around 233C) when you put the bread in, but our EU ovens don't go to 260C, mine maxes out at 250C.

Also, I have a large steel bowl which I heated in the oven as well before putting the dough in and then I put the bowl on top for the first 15 minutes - not sure if it make any difference to be honest.

At this point I am open to suggestions - especially with cooking temps and times - my recipe was:

100g starter
250g Water
390g wholemeal flour
8g salt

I cooked for 20m under the metal bowl at 230C then removed the bowl for the last 20 minutes.  The loaf was very slightly undercooked so it could have done with maybe 5-10 minutes longer but I need to figure out the right temps before I start playing with cooking times.

The crust is not bad - about 1.5mm thick but the crumb is very close.