The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Just to say I can still "walk the walk" :)

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

Just to say I can still "walk the walk" :)

I have not been very active here in many years, posting only occasionally in reply to member questions, and even more rarely to my own blog.  Perhaps so much so that I may even appear to only talk the talk.  I decided today that I should, if not change that, at least speak into the silence a little bit.  So, I will tell you of  my latest bake.

This is a very straight forward 68% white sourdough.  The last year or two I have adopted/adapted the 3-stage approach of Danni3113, for which you can find the basics here.  The principal adaptation I use is to refrigerate the completed starter after the last feed, then on dough making day I pull it out early, give it a stir, and wait till it gets "jiggly" to start my dough.  This adapts better to my schedule.

I also bake in dutch ovens because my oven uses so much top heat that crusts turn black long before the loaves are finished.  I bake covered for 15-18 minutes, then finish uncovered for 10-12 minutes, to center temp of +/-205F.  Here are today's results (crumb shot when available).

and

Edit:  Added Crumb Shot

Just saying...  (Am I boasting?  Of course!  Don't we all?)

Still baking happy!
OldWoodenSpoon

Comments

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Welcome back! Great looking loaves to back up the knowledge!

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

Thanks for the encouragement!

OldWoodenSpoon

WatertownNewbie's picture
WatertownNewbie

What nice looking loaves.  I am impressed that you get that amount of crust color in such a short amount of time, especially from a Dutch oven bake.

Glad to see you active again.

Ted

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

I think the high color is a result of all the top heat my oven produces.  It only takes a very short time to really darken loaves, so much so that I always cover pan loaves during the middle period of a bake, the uncover at the end to finish them off.  It was hard to learn this oven.

Thanks for visiting
OldWoodenSpoon

semolina_man's picture
semolina_man

Well done!  Thanks for sharing.