Champlain Sourdough Bread
This is a recipe I got from Trevor J. Wilson, according to Trevor, this is the bread of the Lake Champlain Islands (in Vermont).
I did some minor tweaks to the formula and not because I thought it's going to make it particularly better, just rounded up some numbers because 390g of flour and 20g of Rye make more sense to me than 389g and 19g, maybe I'm going to piss somebody here (because I'm new to SD) but I really can't see how 1g of flour can make a huge difference with the over whole quantities in the formula that people insist on 389g instead of 390.
Plus I have a minor OCD when it comes to numbers, for example, I can't have my TV or radio volume be on 17 or 23 or 41, it has to be even numbers so 22 is fine, 16 or 18, 40 or 42... I can even let 15/25/35/45 slide, but not 43 or 47, never.
Where were we?
Oh, bread, Lake Champlain, right... so, minor tweaks, adjusted to times to the heat in the desert were I live and what I got is a great loaf, it's 70% hydration so it's a perfect loaf for me to try when coming out of the comfort zone of all white flour where I dwell for a while now.
Formula:
300g Water
390g White flour
40g Whole Spelt Flour
20g Whole Rye Flour
10g salt
100g starter (100% hydration, white flour)
Started with 30 minutes of autolyse, added the starter, pinched it in, added the salt, slapped and folded a few times, set aside to BF for 2.5 hours, did a stretch and fold every 30-40 minutes.
Pre-shaped, left to rest for 15 minutes and then shaped it, into my banneton and a long retarding in the fridge (overnight, around 9 hours).
Baked in a dutch oven @ 220c covered for 20 minutes and then lowered the temperature to 190c and baked for additional 35 minutes uncovered.
This is something I started doing to try and get a little bit less moisture in my crumb and it worked, it's not dry or anything but with my crappy oven I get a more even bake this way and the crumb is better.
The result is a nice puffy loaf, a deeper taste than the white flour bread I bake weekly, of course, it's hard to describe the taste in words but I get a more "herby" feeling if that makes any sense, the crumb is open but not too open that the butter falls through. the crust is nice golden-brown, with a nice tangy bite, I like it, I like it A-LOT :-)
I feel like this is a great beginner's loaf for mixing flours and dealing with different textures and flavors, the dough wasn't to steaky to handle (something I still struggle with, especially with high hydration) and the result is wonderful.
I'd love to hear your remarks, and if you have tips for me on how to make things better, or if you think I didn't things wrong, lay it on me!