Blog posts

If you have thought about getting a sourdough culture going but don't feel up for a lot of watching and waiting, I highly recommend the method outlined by Ian on his now rather empty Ars Pistorica blog. I nearly posted yesterday, because it sure looked like sourdough starter and tasted like it, and had lots of little bubbles. But, I feel, the proof is in the pudding, or my old friend, sourdough bread. So, here I am Sunday morning with two little loaves that managed to surprise me with some solid oven spring 10 hours after bulk fermentation start.

Here is the crumb shot from the Hamelman Five Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough. 

This weekend I baked Jeffrey Hamelman's Five Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough.  I followed the instruction carefully.  It is a very slack dough but handles very nicely. It has a very pleasing taste, but not as pronounced as I would have liked.  Next time I make it I will investigate how to make the starter more tangy.

When I first made this bread (recipe currently on the top right of FL), I froze two loaves.  I baked the first of the frozen loaves today, and it really came out well. I defrosted the dough in the fridge during the day yesterday, and did a stretch and fold and shaping before putting it into the covered baker to retard in the fridge overnight.

I just bought and started experimenting with Tartine Book No. 3. I don't have the others, but I did some reading online (especially tartine-bread.blogspot.com, now girlmeetsrye.blogspot.com). Based on her recommendation, I'm working with a 100% rye, 100% hydration starter that I started at the end of May. So far I've made 3 recipes from Book No. 3, and decided to sign up here in order to start a record of my loaves where I can relate photos to recipes.

Yesterday, I baked a bread based on Ken Forkish's "Pain de Campagne" from Flour Water Salt Yeast. Forkish's is basically a white bread. Mine is made with 500g AP, 200g WW and 100g Rye in the final dough. (The levain contains 160g AP and 40g WW flours.) I also omit the instant yeast. We really like this bread.

Today, I made a German-style rye bread. 

David's (dmsnyder's) San Joaquin sourdough is my new go-to bread. I've made it on four separate occasions over the past 2 weeks. I love the convenience of the method that David developed based on Anis Bouabsa's baguettes. My only change is to use more rye. I use about 15% whole rye in the final dough and in my levain. My hydration is usually around 76-77%.

Lucy, being a German Baking Apprentice 2md Class in fairly good standing when she isn’t sleeping, came up with what she thinks is a fitting healthy and hearty bread that, if actually baked back in the 15th and 16th centuries would, all by itself, explain this one armed knight’s long life, clean behind and possibly account for his missing arm - especially if he washed it down with too many very dark, high alcohol European brewskies.  Lucy does have a thing for men with Von in their name since she is a real Von Snigglefriz herself.

I need to start taking better notes. I've accumulated a lot of pictures recently, and looking through them I find I have trouble remembering exactly what I actually baked. Also, a couple of the breads seem to have fairly nice crumbs in hindsight (I tend to be quite critical at the time), so I wish I could remember my precise handling methods and timings. Oh well.

I think this was a Pain au Levain from Hamelman.