Okay. THIS time I think it is sourdough.
I managed to get my starter tripling so I figured it was time to attempt another bake.
It's looking good but not quite right yet. Good ferment/sour notes in it, but the crumb was not as even as I'd like. I was having to do a lot of adjusting of times on the fly and having to go by feel. We are just coming out of a cold snap where I am and the temperature in the house has not been consistent as well as being pretty cold at night in particular.
I mixed 50g of starter with 150g AP flour and 150g water and that sat overnight. But it was not behaving the way I expected and had not doubled after 12 hours so I gave it another couple of hours in the sun. It wasn't looking great so I added 200g flour and 100g water and gave it yet another few hours in the afternoon sun. I then added 800g flour, 580g water and 20g salt after supper. Kneaded it up and let it rise for an hour and a half, then gave it a few letter folds, then let it rise again... It was still really not rising, so I left it for almost 6 hours before I divided and shaped it. Then I popped them into the fridge for an overnight proof and baked them up this morning! Was approx. 36 hours start to finish.
Pardon the terrible knife work.
Comments
What a difference. Your starter is performing well. I do think you could have been a bit more adventurous with the bulk ferment and more careful to knock the bigger bubbles out when shaping but all-in-all that's such a big leap. You've solved your starter problem. The rest is just getting used to the process. But I nit-pick because you asked us to! That is a lovely bake. If the taste is good and it gets eaten it's a successful bake. Now you just aim for what you want out of the final loaf.
I agree with Abe, big improvement and it sounds like your starter is doing much better and that is the most important first step you need to maintain. Now this is better but still to my eye a bit underfermented. If you can get the dough warmer during bulk things will move along much better and you should be able to get a better fermented crumb. You’re almost there!
Benny
Yeah I really struggle with temperature (I'm not in control of the thermostat and it's winter here) been seriously thinking of building a warm box.
I agree it's still a bit gummy. But I was so excited it wasn't a total failure I don't even mind it. Lol
Also, just to make sure I'm understanding all these new-to-me terms. Bulk is when you first feed your starter to get enough to make bread with... before you add the remaining flour water & salt and knead it, correct?
Bulk starts when the levain is added to the dough or water flour mix. Bulk ends when you divide to pre-shape or go directly to shape. So start of bulk when leavening agent is added and ends with some sort of shaping.
Benny