Modern Jess's blog

I'm still nurturing my spelt starter in preparation for an all-spelt loaf later this week, so this is another variation on the country loaf, made with spelt starter that would otherwise go to waste.

I'm quite happy with the rise on this loaf, as well as the flavor that the spelt starter seems to impart. Sorry, no crumb shot, I took this loaf to the office where it was promptly devoured by my team during weekly staff.

Recipe is as follows:

• 500g KA bread flour
• 350g water (77°)
• 150g spelt starter
• 12.5g salt

S&F for 4 hours @ 30 minute intervals, bench rest, loaf formed. Proofed overnight in a cool kitchen for ~12 hours. 

Baked in Lodge combo cooker covered for 20 minutes @ 500°, uncovered for 12 minutes @ 450°

I've made this loaf probably more than any other, and yet I still managed to screw up a few things. This is my Standard Sesame Loaf, though in this particular instance I used a little bit of spelt starter that would otherwise have gone to waste, along with some of my regular wheat starter. I wouldn't call this one of the better examples, though -- rise was a little bit less than I would have hoped for. I messed up here and there, both on ingredients and timing.

Recipe as follows:

• 500g KA bread flour
• 362g water (73°) (overshot and poured too much)
• 100g spelt starter (100% hydration)
• 50g wheat starter (70% hydration)
• 13g kosher salt

S&F for 3 hours, followed by bench rest, then formed loaf and applied sesame crust. Proofed overnight in a banneton for ~8 hours, then retarded in refrigerator for ~12 hours, then proofed on counter for another ~3 hours. Okay, that's probably too much.

Baked in Lodge combo cooker covered @ 500° for 20 minutes, uncovered @ 450° for 10 minutes. In the future, I will probably avoid cooking a sesame-crusted loaf at 500° -- this was my first time trying it like that. Too dark for sesame, I think.

Unrelated to this loaf, I am planning on baking a loaf for a coworker who has some wheat issues. She's had modest success tolerating a very long-ferment sourdough loaf that I prepared for her (taking pains not to incorporate any unfermented flour along the way), and I'd like to now try an all-spelt loaf for her as an experiment. Thus, I needed to split off my wheat-based starter into a spelt variant, and rather than waste precious spelt, I thought I would make the most of the transition.

So THIS loaf is a pretty much plain, standard sourdough, but made with an overnight spelt levain. The levain was mixed at 100% hydration, and I had a tablespoon or two left over as a seed for an all-spelt starter.

The recipe is as follows:

• 500g KA Bread Flour
• 350g water (77°)
• 150g spelt levain @100% hydration
• 13g kosher salt

Stretch & folds happened at 30 minute intervals for 3 hours. Skipped bench rest (I was running short of time) and formed the loaf, which then proofed overnight for ~9 hours in a cool kitchen. Baked covered @ 500° for 20 minutes and uncovered @ 450° for 13 minutes.

I think this is one of my better crumbs, and the spelt seemed to add some extra tastiness -- hard to articulate, maybe more nutty?

My previous attempt at an artichoke loaf had too much garlic (in fact, I should just call it a very successful garlic bread) and not nearly enough artichoke hearts. The cheese (a mix of shredded parmesan, romano, and asiago) worked really well.

For this attempt, I roasted the artichoke hearts (maybe a bit too much) with Italian seasoning and olive oil. I also used a lot more of it, and omitted the garlic altogether. Because the cheese in the last one was just right, I used more of it in this version. :)

• 500g KA Bread Flour
• 350g water (72°)
• 150g ripe starter
• 12.5g kosher salt
• 50g shredded cheese (parmesan, romano, asiago)
• 1 can artichoke hearts, roasted in olive oil with Italian seasoning

As before, I proofed this in parchment overnight for ~9 hours. Baked in parchment in a dutch oven for 25 minutes covered @ 450° and 15 minutes uncovered @ 450°.

For my third loaf of my personal 50 loaf 2017 challenge, I'm repeating the Tartine-esque country loaf already. It's a great loaf, and I've gotten reasonably good at it (well, my version, anyway) so I'll be baking it fairly often.

This one actually improves a bit on the last one by getting better rise during the long proof (why, I have no idea) and turning out a bigger, airier loaf than the last one. It also sounded more hollow (when tapping on the bottom) than any loaf I've ever baked before. The one difference during the bake (which wouldn't account for the rise while proofing) is that I forgot to turn the oven down from 500° to 450 until 27 minutes into the bake. At that point, it only took three more minutes before I panicked and pulled it out. It temped at 210° internally, so I guess that worked out okay.

Recipe is as follows:

• 450g KA Bread Flour
• 50g KA Whole Wheat Flour
• 350g water (71°)
• 150g ripe starter
• 13g salt (I overshot a bit)

Proofed for ~10 hours. Cooked at 500° covered for 20 minutes, followed by 500° uncovered for 7 minutes, followed by 450° uncovered for 3 minutes, followed by abject panic.

This loaf was quite a bit more experimental. I was trying to emulate a really awesome loaf that is pretty much only available at a tiny gourmet market over the hill and toward the coast from here (in Pescadero, to be precise) but I ended up with something else entirely.

You wouldn't know it by looking at the crumb (weirdly) but this loaf has chopped up artichoke hearts, chopped garlic, and a quarter cup of Italian three-cheese blend. The garlic (all 5 large cloves worth) is a bit too strong, and the artichokes could probably be bigger (and more plentiful). The cheese works well, at least.

I'm not unhappy with the loaf, exactly -- it's still quite good. But not what I was trying to emulate. Maybe the next one will get closer. Or maybe I need to make another trip to that market for more "research". ;)

The full recipe is as follows:

• 500g KA bread flour
• 350g water (room temperature)
• 150g ripe starter
• 12g salt
• 1/4 cup shredded Italian three-cheese blend
• 1/3 cup chopped artichoke hearts
• 5 large cloves garlic, chopped

Everything was mixed at once, rather than holding out some of the ingredients until after bulk rise. I do think the raw garlic inhibited the rise somewhat, but only a bit. Proofing was an extraordinary 11 hours (overnight in a cool kitchen). The loaf was cooked in parchment in a dutch oven at 450 degrees for 25 minutes covered, followed by approximately 15 minutes (I was doing it by eye at that point) uncovered.

I'm starting off this challenge with a relatively simple loaf. This is my own version of the Tartine country loaf, simplified quite a bit from the original and timed to work in my kitchen with my starter. I skip the overnight levain altogether, and just use ripe starter. There's more acid transfer, but I actually like my sourdough sour. And I skipped the autolyse step as well. The regular turning at 30 minute intervals I retained, but then proof for an excessively long 10 hours overnight in a cool 65 degree kitchen. The result is much tastier than my attempts at making a strictly by-the-book Tartine loaf, but that probably has much to do with the very long ferment. I've never had the pleasure of tasting the genuine article from Tartine, so I'm assuming it's just my kitchen and my starter not cooperating with Chad's instructions.

My recipe is as follows:

• 450g KA bread flour
• 50g KA whole wheat flour
• 150g ripe starter
• 350g water (room temperature)
• 12g salt

As I said, proofing was overnight for about 10 hours at about 65 degrees for most of that time. Cooked for 20 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered.

(A note about the numbers in the photos: I'm keeping notes on each loaf I bake for my 2017 challenge, and the numbers help me connect the photos with the notes. The number set in these photos means it is the first loaf baked in 2017).

How do you master any given skill? Practice. Thousands of hours of work. Analysis of failures, and successes too.

Toward that end, my own personal self-imposed challenge for 2017 will be to bake at least 50 loaves of bread (hopefully more), documenting and photographing each one. I'll post the successes and also the failures here in this blog. I hope that by doing so, I'll be a better baker at the end of 2017 than I was at the start of 2017.

I've been planning this for a month or two. I even went so far as to acquire some number signage to include in my photos so that I can match the pictures to my notes.

The adventure begins...

Last night, after I formed the loaf for the Sesame Triple Threat and set it aside to proof, I realized it was still early and decided to make another batch of dough. To this one I added 20g of dried minced onion, which results in more of an aroma of onion than an actual flavor.

I didn't get much rise out of the dough overnight, though. I went ahead and divided the dough into 100g rolls anyway, formed each one up and let them proof on the sheet pan. They didn't proof much either.

Once in the oven, they poofed up nicely. They were still a bit dense, and even a bit doughy, but they turned out delicious.

• 500g KA bread flour
• 350g cold water
• 150g SD starter
• 20g Penzey's dried minced onion
• 12g salt

I'm a big sesame fan, and I've been wondering lately if I can take that farther than the thick sesame crust I have been using on my bread for a while now. I hit upon the idea of adding sesame oil to the dough. As I googled around for some guidance on the subject, I found an example right here on TFL, and that confirmed my hunch about how much sesame oil to add -- about 1 teaspoon.

I baked this loaf fairly strongly, though in hindsight I think the sesame would benefit from just a little less. 

• 500g KA bread flour
• 351g cold water
• 150g starter
• 13g salt
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/4 cup black sesame (in the dough)
• white & black sesame (crust)

Four to five hours of turns at irregular intervals (I kept forgetting to set the timer), loaf formed and placed in banneton, then proofed on the counter overnight (10-ish hours). It was bulging out of my 8" banneton in the morning. Baked at 450 for 22 minutes covered followed by 18 minutes uncovered.