The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Passing the Test Sourdough Bread

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Passing the Test Sourdough Bread

The bottom iof the loaf shows the true color of this bread

Our daughter found out yesterday morning that she passed the national PA certification test.  Yea!  Now she can get a job and start the rest of her non-school life.  We could not be prouder of her.   All the hard work she has put in through college and the PA school has finally paid off and now she can make her own way in the world and follow her path to where ever it leads her.

We have been celebrating but Lucy wanted to get in the act and come up with a bread that would punctuate her schooling with a fitting bread that she might like.  Pout daughter love whole grain SD breads toasted with butter and an egg on top.  After getting a loaf of Acme in SF last week after her test, she was primed for one of Lucy’s concoctions.

This one was a bit more and less special than usual.  No sprouts this time but it did have some of the red rye malt we made last week to enhance the flavor and color.  This one was 50% whole 6 grains made up of spelt, rye, Kamut, barley with red and white wheat.  Bread flour rounded out the remaining flour.

The levain was made from 10 g of our long fridge stored NMNF stiff rye starter.  It as bit on the small side at 8.33% pre-fermented 18% extraction bran sifted from the fresh milled whole grains, but it is still in the low 100’s here and things move very fast when it comes to wee beasties working in levains and bread dough.

Another odd thing was that this levain was 1 stage only, bran only and not retarded after the 12 hour build.  We did stir it every 4 hours though.   It was our normal 100% hydration but, since it was all bran, a very stiff one that was difficult to rise.  It smelled very powerful non the less and was ready to go.

You can see the dough was too big for the parchment so it stuck to the peel as i tried to load it - Don't do this - it will make your bread a more weird shape then normal.

!We autolysed the dough flour, red malt and water, bringing the overall hydration to a bit over 80%, for 1 hour with the Pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top.  Once the levain hit the mix, we did 30 slap and folds to get everything mixed together and then did 3 more sets of 4 slap and folds, all on 30 minute intervals, to get the gluten moving along.  We then placed the dough in an oiled SS bowl for an 8 hour bulk retard in the fridge.

The top looks like it was hardly baked but it is just the extra rice flour I put in the basket masking its true color.

We took the dough out the next morning and it looked like it had proofed about 50% in the cold.  We let it warm up on the counter for 1 ¼ hours before pre-shaping and shaping.  We then placed it in a rice floured oblong basket for proofing on the counter in a plastic grocery bag.  After a couple of hours, we fired up the oven to 500 F to get the top and bottom stones well heated up while we got the Lava Rock Mega Steam ready.

Yes - Time for a salad

When the oven beeped saying it was hot we put the Mega Steam in and let the coven get the steam billowing after 15 more minutes.  We on-molded the bread onto parchment on a peel, slashed it twice and loading into the oven between the 2 stones and turned the oven down to 460 F.

If your chocolate coffee ganache glazed Mocha Brownies don't reflect the sky like it was solid ice then there is something wrong.  And SD makes the best bun for a sausage and beef, bacon cheeseburger with caramelized onions, peppers and mushrooms and a side of baked wedge fries.

and for those like Lucy who say where is the beef;;;

After 18 minutes, we took out the Mega Steam and turned the oven down to 425 F while turning on the convection fan.  It had puffed itself up well but didn’t bloomed all that much under the steam and after 18 more minutes of baking it had browned up and exposed a few small blisters too.

We took the bread out of the oven to cool when it hit 208 F liking a bolder bake than one not so.  Now we wait for tomorrow for the crumb shot since we are going out to do some more celebrating tonight!  Well it smelled so goo I couldn't help but slice into it.  The crumb is soft, glossy and moist but not as open as I was expecting.  Still, it tastes terrific and we will enjoy this with some cheese, EVOO, balsamic and herbs.

Earthy, hearty and healthy with no add in bits getting in the way of that soft crumb.  Just delicious

Formula

8.33% Prefermented Bran Levain 100% hydration

50% 6 Whole Grains

50% Bread Flour

2% each Salt and Red Rye Malt

81% Overall Hydration

 

Comments

BXMurphy's picture
BXMurphy

Congratulations and best wishes to your daughter, dabrownman!

The bread looks great, as usual. I just can't get over the fact that you're plunking dough into a 50 cent basket you got from Goodwill on Dollar Thursday. :) It blows my mind!

Did you spray down the basket and sprinkle flour on it for a first coating and then let it dry before using?

Also, I think you have a GE Profile double-decker oven like me. Doesn't all that Mega Steam just blow out the vents? And... you must be covering the glass window with a towel while sloshing all that water around, right?

Murph

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

be nice - just the single GE Profile.  The Mega Steam just keeps pumping ut the steam no matter how much gets vented.  I don't cover the glass front but make sure not to spill any water on it.  The 9 x12 Mega Steam Pan is only 1/4 full of water after the lava rocks cover the bottom so there isn't any water sloshing around because of all the lava rocks.

I just put rice flour in the basket when it was new and now re flour it once a year.  I usually do a better job of shaking out the excess flour than this time.  You don't wan't to wet or oil the baskets before applying rice flour.  For 50 cents you can get a dozen different basket of all sizes and shapes form less than half the cost of one brotform.  They work just as well too.

Bread baking can and should  be very inexpensive. A great loaf of SD bread only costs a buck to make hardly worth spending a lot of money on the equipment to make it.   A large SS mixing bowl to mix and cover the dough on the counter and in the oven, a DO, a large spoon for mixing, a dough scraper, a peel and a stone and a few baskets is all you need and that will cost you about less than $10 at Goodwill on Thursday like they did me.  You can even buy a bread machine on any Thursday for a buck too - like I have many times.  You just have to be patient and keep your eyes open and live somewhere where rich, old people pass away more often than other places - like Scottsdale AZ, where the pickings are really good. 

Thanks for the congrats adn happy baking Murph!

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

You must be so proud of your daughter! That is a huge accomplishment!

And your bread looks wonderful! The crumb is perfect as far as I am concerned! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

like it.  Just shows that minor mishaps like the dough sticking to the peel doesn't have to ruin it even if the shape is a bit wonky:-)  You would like this one - it tastes great - can't wait fr breakfast toast this morning.

Thanks for the congrats - she worked very hard for 6 years to get there.

Happy baking Danni

Ru007's picture
Ru007

How excited you must all be :) I wish her every success in the future.

This is a great looking loaf, perfect for a celebratory meal. Nice open and airy crumb :)

The difference in the colour on top and the bottom is interesting, the extra rice flour in the basket really made a difference. Why did you have more rice flour in the basket than usual?

happy baking Dab!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

40 years if work ahead - ten she can be a retired doofus like me:-)

I have to admit I don't like the way this loaf looks on the outside at all.  I hate white on the outside if these kinds of breads and prefer the uncovered and naked dark brown bold look plus, this one got a bit strange looking due to it being stuck to the peel - at least it wasn't a pizza catastrophe - been there and had several of those!

I usually shake out all the extra rice flour very well but this was one really sticky dough for some reason, very wet, and I thought that it would help to not shake it all out - wrong.  At least the crumb came out OK and it tastes great.

Happy baking Rui007

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Congrats DA to your daughter! You guys must be so proud.
I'm sure she appreciated Lucy's bread as it looks great along with the rest of the food spread!
Happy Baking and happy NFL kickoff day!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Lucy is our 'Girl Baby' and we aren't too proud of her accomplishments since all she can do is shake hands, sit and upchuck on your toes:-)

The bread is very tasty and went quite sour by day 3 and is making some great sandwiches.  The Cards start off the season tonight against the Patriots and the Cards might have a chance with the 'Big Defaltor' banned and Palmer only in his late 50's or something like that:-)  A good thing....... that football is back.......and none too soon.

Lucy sends her best to the 2 black ones and the 5 furry, fluff balls

Happy Baking Ian

BXMurphy's picture
BXMurphy

Sorry for your disappointing football game against our beloved Patriots.

Around my parts you could always make money betting against the Pats but lately, they've been on a tear! They're like what the Celtics were back in the Larry Bird days. I have to check if we still have a basketball team. Or a hockey one, for that matter...

And as we say around here, "Hey, how 'bout them Sox?"

Sometimes I wish I was a sports fan... I'm supposed to be watching David Ortiz' farewell tour but haven't seen a single game. Has anyone else heard of "Big Papi" or is that just a Red Sox Nation thing?

Murph

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

I think the crumb looks perfect, myself. If it was much more open all those good things you've put between two slices would leak through!

I love finding inexpensive things to use for baking bread with. The latest is a 1 pound placemat from Poundland here in the UK (we're traveling right now) which I used to roll up a loaf of soft, sticky sourdough to proof. It didn't stick at all, with only a tiny bit of flour on it.

And congrats, Dad! :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

kinds of stuff to make bread with and I already had more than enough stuff.  Now I just go there to get bread machines for a buck on Thursdays or if I need something like wine glasses since they break all the time..  Senior day is pretty good at 25% off but nothing beats Dollar Thursdays!

Glad you liked the bread LL and thanks for the Congrats

Happy Baking