Open Crumb Mastery - converting a formula to a recipe
Hello!!
I've been baking sd bread for some time now, but my results, while nearly always edible and actually yummy, are wildly variable. I've been reading Trevor Wilson's Open Crumb Mastery, and when I came upon his advice (on p. 150) to work on one bread, just one, over and over and over and over as the way to improve all the skills required of the baker, I decided to do give it a go.
I’d like to use the Sunny Day’s Loaf (p. 245) since it’s the lowest hydration/stiffest dough as my training bread. And because I have quite a lot of whole spelt to use.
This if the formula TW provides for an 800g loaf: "94% bread flour (12.7% protein), 4% whole spelt, 2% whole rye, 65% water, 2% salt. The leaven was a stiff 55% hydration all-purpose flour starter that had matured for around 12 hours, and it comprised 6.25% of the total dough weight (50g)."
I am ridiculously bad at math, but this is what I came up with for the actual recipe: 752 g bread flour, 32 g whole spelt, 16 g whole rye, 520 g water, 16 g salt, and 50 g starter.
Is this correct? I suspect I’ve messed up here somewhere, as this recipe won’t produce an 800 g loaf. Or will it?
This is the first loaf I've made with half of this recipe, not great crumb, but some oven spring, so maybe it's ok.
Any comments and/or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Jennifer
So you want an 800g loaf, right? And using the following formula...
Total = 222g
Now you want an 800g loaf, so...
800g / 222g = 3.6036
Now multiply everything by 3.6036
So rounding up and down to the nearest whole number...
Total = 798g (as close as you'll get due to rounding up or down to the nearest whole number)
Thanks for the rapid response, Abe.
My only question regards the formula TW provides and which I quote in my post.
He gives percentages in the formula, except for the levain/starter. He says to use 50 g, or 6.25%. If you divide 50 by 800, you get 0.0625, which I believe is 6.25%. So what I did to calculate my recipe was to multiply 800 by the percentages given in the formula.
You used 55% levain, but I so I recalculated the recipe like this:
Total = 173.25 g
800g / 173.25g = 4.6176
Now multiply everything by 4.6176
bread flour 434g
This comes to 800g......BUT, the amount of levain is off since TW says to use 50 g, but with this calculation method there is just 29g (assuming I've done the math correctly, which is quite unlikely).
I'm still very confused.
But I have recalculated using the extra info you have given me and I concur with your results.
I also agree that 6.25% or 50g doesn't make much sense as they don't tie in with each other.
Let me check Open Crumb Mastery and i'll get back to you.........
6.25% of total dough weight. So armed with this info let's work it out again!
6.25% of 800g = 50g.
Now 750g is left for all the other ingredients.
Total = 167g
750 / 167 = 4.4910
So the final recipe is:
Total = 800g exactly with 50g leaven or 6.25% of total dough weight
P.s. to be fair that's what you put in your original post but it's so easy to miss and jump straight into the calculations. It also is a tad confusing when putting all the other ingredients as bakers percentages to the flour but then the leaven as a percentage to the total dough weight.
Thanks again, Abe!
You are ACE!
Now I think I understand. Will use the new recipe tomorrow when I do my baking training!
Thanks!!
I do like a challenge and it's good we worked through it together. Confusing to use two different percentages in one recipe, bakers percentage to the flour and then to total dough, but it is a lesson in reading a recipe carefully.
Best of luck and look forward to your bake.
It's strange that the incorrect recipe worked - more or less. I think I finally understand the baker's percentage concept thanks to our exchange here.
I'm impatient, and when I don't quite understand something I don't worry too much about it and forge on. This could also be one of the roots of my wildly varied bakes.
Many thanks!
It's a variation on this recipe. Same ratio of spelt to rye with a larger percentage of bread flour.
As you see the leaven percentage and dough weight is the same (minus the salt) but with a slight variation to the wholegrain. Less flour but more water to make up for the wholegrain. Very similar!
I've seen this video. It is similar.
This is the result of the first bake with the recipe you calculated. Nice crust and oven spring...but the crumb. Hmmmm. On the up side, it tastes great and is good for sandwiches, so there's that! This is a journey, that's for sure! I shall continue.
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