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For ever I have resisted getting involved with sourdough, maintaining a starter, waiting hours upon hours for a loaf of bread. I don't view commercial yeast as inferior in any way, and probably more consistently reliable. Besides, I like only sourdough that is mild, so no good reason to get dragged in.

A friend gave me some starter which I've been using for English muffins and bagels, along with a bit of ady. Time to try a 100% sourdough loaf. Pullman the first day, round top the second. They turned out fine. No epiphany, no conversion though.

I've recently had a few great bakes that had glutinous rice flour in them and it seemed that it assisted with a strong oven spring, especially if cooked first as a roux (tangzhong/yudane).

To understand it further, let's look at an experimental bake of four small breads (each with 500g of dough and each where 5% of the flour was a rice flour):

I sliced my finger good on the sharp edge of the Pullman cover.

Most excellent results. Not as perfectly squared as some I see here. Very nice just the same. 

The bake time @ 425°F 45 minutes. The same as yesterday. 

1. Lower the hydration to a more manageable percentage. While keeping a moist delicious texture.

2. The first test bake in a Pullman loaf pan 

   Note worthy attributes

   1. All of the white flour is high gluten 

   2. All of the white flour is pre fermented.

   Phase #1 The autolysis. observation 

   The dough after the initial mix looks much drier. Albeit clay like.

Today's bake:   Sour Ring Bread -  Hapanleipa (Finland)

Source:   The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: Increased TDW From 1969g to 2000g

Substitutions: None

So, I took time to fix my previous roti gambang, both formula-wise and makeup-wise. I decided to do pain viennois approach, but at 60% hydration. I was quite surprise to know that pain viennois can be done at hydration as low as 50% (which will be a lot closer to the traditional scone-style roti gambang). But after few tests, I like the mouthfeel of 60% hydration better. This is my fifth trial batch.

16Jul

I love adding fresh ricotta cheese to bread. It creates a nice soft, flavorful crumb. I also added some tasty cocoa-flavored honey, which really brought this one over the top.

I made one large miche for this bake. The crumb came out nice and open, and the crust was dark and flavorful.

This bake had 73% fresh milled flour, milled with my Mockmill 200. I sifted once with a #30 drum sieve and re-milled at the finest setting.

This humble loaf is a continuation of the ongoing Pullman pan-demic happening here. The recipe is adapted from Hammelmans straight dough recipe from his first edition of Bread. I used his ingredient percentages approximately but converted it to a sourdough levain and the short bulk long proof method used previously. The whole grain portion is home milled in equal amounts of red and white spring wheat from Wheat Montana that was sifted twice through a 40 mesh screen with 6% of the bran removed.