Blog posts

Hello Everyone,

She made it to 15 so Lucy got her promotion to Baker's Apprentice First Class.  She sends her congrats to all the mothers out there on this special day.

Lucy celebrated by picking cherry tomatoes this morning.  Mom asked for ribs for dinner and they are dry rubbed in the fridge we wll make some some sausages and maybe so chicken thighs too.

I've learned many things in my 60+ years, but one thing gets forgotten sometimes, and that is: Don't do too many things at the same time! 
Preparing the dough for (Jeffrey Hamelman's) Pain au levain I was distracted and poured 400ml warm water into the starter, instead of the 280ml.  Thankfully I realized my mistake, and added a 50g mix of rye, and bread flour.  The dough was a little more hydrated than usual, but felt great during the S&Fs, and in to the fridge it went.

Time for the weekly bake and I decided that I want to improve  my shaping of a 'torpedo' style loaf

with more tampered ends. Not quite there but making a start...

Research first and I've found the following bakers on IG which shared their shaping and watched their videos endless times...

I learned that I absolutely can bake an 18" pizza utilizing an 18" pizza screen. Since the screen keeps the pie rigid, it can be placed directly on an oven rack or on a smaller ( in my case 16") pizza steel. With this revelation, I have reached the size cutoff point for the confines of my home oven. My sourdough crust is working very nicely this particular pie is a 24hr cold ferment. The dough was easy to stretch into an 18" skin and was not overly extendable. 10% of whole grain gives great flavor and a nice bite. Very nontraditional for Brooklyn style, but the wife gives it high marks.

Back again with more RWC sourdough.  Mostly the same process as I usually use, with a few changes.....  I built my levain using 50/50 AP/Rye instead of my usual WW.  Adjusted the amount of WW in the formula to keep that % about the same.  I used a mix of black and white sesame seeds to keep my loaf from sticking to the towel that lines my banneton.  Here are the details......

1000g AP flour

205g WW flour

240g Starter (100% hydration)

770g Water

26g Salt

This Rustic loaf is my regular weekly loaf and never misses if I am true to the process. I use instant yeast to make only one loaf at a time. That's what I like about Hamelman's book; you get the bakers per cent and I can rescale one 750 g loaf to suit my banneton. 

Process

This was made using King Arthur bread flour (12.5% gluten) and King Arthur whole wheat, and Marizio's process was followed modulo any discrepancies recorded in the notes below.

The porridge was much easier to incorporate than the first time because it was cooked more carefully and was therefore less stiff. The oats were cooked in a sealed pot, and were moist and surrounded by gelatinized starch, but any free water had been absorbed.

The porridge was incorporated at the same time as the salt.

Conclusion of this bake: sprouted black quinoa really tastes amazing. Seriously.

20% Sprouted Black Quinoa 30% Sprouted Spelt SD 

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole spelt flour

90g        30%       Sprouted spelt flour