The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Saturday Morning Sourdough

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

Saturday Morning Sourdough

In my "Tale Of Two Starters" thread, Gordon (drogon) posted a link to a simple sourdough recipe he posted in blogs. I started that last night and finished this morning. I followed the recipe as closely as possible with the ingredients available and used my first starter, a 50/50 WW/AP @ 100%. I baked it free-form on a stone.

This was the easiest dough I've worked with, and Gordon's instructions were well illustrated and easy to follow. Also, it was the easiest to get a clean slash.

 

A little misshapen, but that may be my scoring, my forming of the boule, uneven heating, any number of things.

The crumb is significantly finer, denser and more moist than my first one a couple of days ago.

While the tangy flavour is there, if not more pronounced than the other loaf, the WW additive instead of all white may take some getting used to, but Da Warden likes it.

Thanks Gordon.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

All white is pretty boring taste and not nearly as naturally healthy.  I say get used to it - that is some fine bread you have there:-)

Happy baking 

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

While I agree plain white can get boring, the all white sourdough I baked 2 days ago was a fantastic treat. I enjoy a WW loaf and have been struggling to get a nice WW/AP loaf for wifey that's good for sandwiches and toast. 

I've put that on the back burner for a while though. Sourdough with a starter I made myself is so much more enjoyable and rewarding. 

One question though, is a tighter crumb typical of a loaf like this with 80/20 white/wheat, or is it something I did / didn't do?

hreik's picture
hreik

whole wheat bread) you will not get as open a crumb if you include whole wheat. 

As an aside, I was very gung ho early on to get big holes, as though it was a sign of something.  Now I want mostly, good taste, nice oven spring and long shelf life.  If I get some irregular and different sized holes, great.... but as Joc1954 says, his wife wants some crumb to put her butter and jam on.... I agree.

drogon's picture
drogon

I tend to bake them a bit darker, but photos may lie...

I did accidentally bake a coule almost black this week - set my Rofco to 260°C for the top shelf rather than 210°C - the dial looked the same and I'd not put my reading glasses on... Oh well. Oddly enough there were 2 white loaves in it and 2 of these - the whites were dark on-top, but these were almost black... Most odd, but there you go.

From todays bake:

The 4 loaves at the bottom left are Buckfastleigh Sourdoughs. Above them are 4 Devon Honey Spelts, then 4 sourdough blondes...

 

-Gordon

alfanso's picture
alfanso

If I ever find myself on the edge of the Moors looking for Coombe Tracey or Grimpen Mire, I'll be knocking on your door with a knob or two of butter and jam in tow.  Just wonderful!

alan

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

He he he, you obviously work in a bakery or have a semi-pro kitchen and sell some (most?) of your bread. Beautiful work. 

Gordon, I am working on trying to leave them a bit longer to darken, but I pull them out when internal gets to ~ 205 Deg  F. Maybe I need to get a decent oven thermometer and check what the temperature actually is when the setting is 480 F / 250 C. Maybe it's low and not getting high enough for proper caramelization.

In spite of the light colour, I love the crust. Crackling when it comes out of the oven, and the knife sends tiny shards everywhere. 

drogon's picture
drogon

Well no - there was another oven-full of loaves and a couple of trays of buns :-)

I run a home-based microbakery and sell breads through local shops. All good stuff! (There are more posts from me here about it - search for microbakery)

The crackling (singing) is good, isn't it? Gets me every time! I've even seen flour which I've dusted the tops with jumping up when they crackle. And don't worry about the colour - if it tastes good, eat it!

-Gordon

drogon's picture
drogon

That's up to you - I prove these in (cheap) wicker baskets with (thin) linen liners. They come out round which is fine. However they don't fit into the kraft bags I use - so I sort of slightly flatten 2 sides after I tip them out of the basket then do 3 parallel slashes over the now slightly shorter sides. (There are a few more small slashes but they're just decoration). Then when they get a bit of final spring in the oven they come out slightly longer and more oval shape than rounds and they fit in the bags....

I found the spelt loaves responded better to a single long slash than short parallel or diagonal slashes - I was getting weird bursts with the short slashes, but since moving to the long slashes (and bonus 'ear' too) they spring quite well in the oven.

The ones with the sesame seeds on are exactly the same mixture - just shaped into a log, proofed in a couche then a bit of a spritz with water and seeds sprinkled on (and slashed) before going into the oven.

It's funny how some of these things come about!

-Gordon

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Good job! Love the crust and crumb!

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Well done Jamie and I expect more of such nice loaves in your posts.

Happy baking, Joze