Simple Sourdoughs with Durum
I've become somewhat obsessed lately with Durum flour. It adds such a sweet, buttery flavor to the bread, which is good- because then I don't add butter when I have slice after slice of this bread!
The boule on the left is the sourdough with durum. The loaf on the right is a vermont sourdough (a la Hammelman's formula). The scoring pattern didn't quite turn out as planned...anyway, the percentage of durum flour in this particular boule came to about 15%. That's only because I am rationing out my durum flour until I can find a less expensive source :-) Otherwise I would have it at about 25%.
When I feed my firm starter, I take the "waste" and make a teeny-tiny little sourdough boule- it's so cute and fun to make because it's so small. It's also a good one because I bake it the same day I mix; skipping the overnight retardation step (forfeiting more flavor, I know, but sometimes it's nice to not have to wait). I think the formula ends up:
25g firm levain
130g bread flour
20g durum flour
103g water
3g sea salt
I baked this with the "magic bowl" method, same as for the loaves above. But for some reason, due to the size, it doesn't come out with much of a crust. It's more thin and chewy instead of thicker and well, crustier. Still good though. Perfect size for 2 people! Okay, perfect size for one person to eat- by themselves.....
The small size is also nice for experimenting with different additions/ formulas. For instance, I attempted a chocolate cherry sourdough (which turned out really yummy) and didn't want to waste the cherries and the time if it wasn't going to taste good. Now that I know it does, I will make a larger loaf.