I'm getting back into bread baking after a hiatus of many years. I have been maintaining my whole wheat sourdough starter ("Darcy") all this time, it is now nine years old. I recently made a KA AP offspring ("Darcy Jr.") and I am keeping it at 66%. I like 66% because the calculations are very simple, late at night or if one has had too much to drink... just three parts flour to two parts water.
My previous experience was with yeasted breads (including two attempts at Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread) and with salt rising bread and 100% whole wheat sourdough (I never did get good results). In recent weeks I made two attempts at the America's Test Kitchen Almost No-Knead Sourdough recipe. Don't they ever test their recipes? ;-) Three ounces starter and 12 to 18 hours initial rise, I guess (based on recent research) that the dough was overproofed... no rise to speak of but the crust was actually excellent, really wonderful, and the crumb, though dense, was delicious.
So last night I did the calculations for a 66% hydration loaf, and this morning, with an extra hour of sleep, I got out of bed and straightaway mixed the flour and water and let it autolyse for an hour while I made coffee. I added the starter and then let it rest for an hour before incorporating the salt. Stretch and folds right away. This was actually the very first time I ever used either an autolyse OR the stretch and fold technique, and although I believe that my stretch and fold technique was pretty lousy I was surprised at how easy it was (and at how minimal the mess was - with NO ADDED FLOUR AT ALL). I had initially planned on using my KitchenAid Commercial to knead the dough, but I was so pleased with the way it felt after stretching and folding that I decided to not use the machine at all.
My shaping was terrible, I have never been any good at shaping dough into a boule. It turned out all right, though.
My formula and method:
"Extra Sleep Sourdough"
510 grams flour
340 grams water (66%)
90-95 grams starter (66%)
10 grams salt
0830 mix flour and water
0930 incorporate starter
1030 incorporate salt
1030-1100 five (?) sets of stretch and folds, brief rests in between
1400-1430 three or four more sets of stretch and folds, shape, transfer to oiled bowl
1600 Transfer to dutch oven lined with lightly oiled parchment paper. Replace dutch oven lid and place in cold oven on top shelf. Pour boiling water into pyrex 9x13 pan on lower shelf. Oven temperature after 45 minutes 97 F, after 60 minutes 93 F, after 90 minutes 90. Oven light bulb turned on at 1730. Oven temperature at 1805 93 F.
1805-1905 Turn oven on to 425 F. Old water poured out of pyrex 9x13 pan. More boiling water poured in. Pyrex pan with water removed when oven temperature reaches 275 degrees. Bake lidded for 30 minutes, unlidded for 30.
Overall, the first sourdough loaf I have felt really good about. Decent rise, moist, chewy texture, decent flavor. Extremely thin crust though, not really crust-y at all. Maybe next time I will use a higher over temp.
I love the fold and stretch technique! I could never make decent bread until I found this. You have a very nice loaf there!
Thanks!
Why are you fussing with water/steam when you are baking in a closed Dutch oven? I thought this Dutch oven would do the job of adding water/steam. Am I missing something.
Maybe nothing, but the lid doesn't give an airtight seal. Just hedging my bets, at the worst it doesn't hurt anything.
Baked again today, same formula, almost the same method. 75 minute autolyze before adding the starter (*Do I need to do this?), followed by additional 45 minute autolyze before incorporating the salt - dry non-iodized Morton table salt, incorporated using multiple stretch and folds (*Is it bad to do it this way?) Stretch and fold sets every 30 to 45 minutes over a period of about four hours. Maybe my stretch and folds and shaping were a little better. Slashing was pathetic (I desperately need to get a lame (and a bowl scraper)). It turned out ok though. Added some steam just when I turned the oven on, took out the pan after just a minute or two. Increased oven temp. by 25 degrees over first time. Crust was still too thin and chewy, not crisp or crusty (*What the hey?) Crumb and flavor were good, though.