Make no mistake. dabrownman is a puppeteer, a master manipulator, one who is capable of, and who garners great pleasure in takes unfair advantage of those weak of will and of mind. Like me!
Dear Loafers, below are photos of my first sourdough loaf, and I'd love some critical feedback. Do any more experienced bakers see defects in the crumb, for instance?
This is a BBA Poilane style loaf recipe from Breadtopia, http://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/. I used a Le Creuset instead of a La Cloche, and the bottom was a bit darker than ideal. I should have checked it once I removed the lid for phase two of the baking.
This one was made with a flour I got at the Farmers Market last week and used it yesterday to get that bread started.
The Flour is from Wessex Mill and called Onion Bread Flour.
The recipe is as simple as can be.
200g 80% hydration starter
700g onion bread flour
400g water
15g salt
1tbsp caraway seeds
2tbsp olive oil.
Mix your starter with your water, olive oil, caraway seeds.
I was in the mood for a pretty simple but tasty bread so I threw this one together a day after my return from my business trip to Germany.
I used a mix of AP, freshly milled whole wheat and rye along with some rye chops and cracked wheat for added texture.
The addition of the olive oil helped soften the crumb a bit and the toasted onions added a nice subtle onion flavor.
Oops. Well - you can't win 'em all. This monster was supposed to be 8 cheese topped white rolls (http://www.food.com/recipe/cheesy-bread-rolls-124244). I had a nice bit of cheese going spare so thought I'd give them a go. I used Doves Farm organic white flour. I'm staying at my friend's house (cat sitting) and she has an excellent oven so I couldn't resist trying it out. The dough was very wet and unworkable as I tried to knock it back and knead it. I have no idea what I did wrong.
This was my third time attempting croissants. I used txfarmer's adjusted recipe but I used bread flour instead of the AP suggested. I was really going after those thin layers, the honeycomb, etc.
Unfortunately I didn't have access to a higher quality, high fat, european-style butter, so I tried the "beat some flour into the butter" method. Not sure if this helped or not, but I imagine it helped absorb some of the water from the butter I used, also helping it to plasticize more easily.
The experimentation and excitement continues. Who knew you could get excited by a bread roll? Forgive me - I'm a newbie remember. I haven't tried using white flour or making white bread so I thought I would start small, half a roll recipe and see what happened. I made these four wee things yesterday. The recipe is here: http://www.thebreadkitchen.com/recipes/scottish-morning-rolls-recipe/
100% whole wheat (Giusto's organic high protein) flour, 50% pre-fermented with starter and raisin yeast water; 60% sprouted grain mix: lentils, millets, soy beans, corns, and wheat berries.
I've made Ken Forkish's White Bread with Poolish several times, but this was my first time attempting his 80% Biga. This dough was incredible! So bouncy and full of life!
Unfortunately, because I've yet to get any bannetons, I'm still using a cloth lined bowl/cloth on the counter. This time, although I floured the cloths (with what I thought was) very heavily, both batards stuck to them, and there was some tearing when putting the loaf on the peel.
Well this is the nicest loaf of pulla I have baked in some time. With this being ski season, I began taking shortcuts. I assumed that because I was using a sponge, I could use less than a fresh starter. I did and the previous two bakes had about 1/3 less oven spring than this bake. For this bake I refreshed my 100% starter 1:1:1 and left it on the kitchen counter overnight to double or more and then fall back. I then began the sponge and the bake and easily +1/3 more oven spring. With the additional oven spring the crumb was lighter and less chewy. So much for shortcuts.
