The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

RWC SD 5/4/19

rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

RWC SD 5/4/19

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

Mix flours, water and starter, let rest 30 minutes.  Pinch in salt, do ~20 stretch/folds, then rest 30 minutes.  Repeat s/f, bulk proof ~1.5-2 hours.  Divide, pre-shape, rest, final shape, proof in bannetons for 1 hour @ 75F, then into fridge for 2 hours.  Bake in oven preheated to 475F, covered for 20 minutes, uncovered for 20-25 minutes.

Observations: This dough rose well during bulk and final proofing, and felt very light and "bubbly".  I noticed that the outside of the dough seemed as though it had dried a bit, I'm thinking it gave up a bit of moisture to the towel lining the banneton......I don't recall seeing this before, but it could also be from the time in the fridge (I didn't put the loaves in a bag like normal.)  Good oven spring.  The crust seemed duller, more dry than normal, and the bloom seems to show the dryness of the skin that I noticed.  Crumb is a bit tighter than normal, which I attribute to rough handling in final shaping.  Flavor was great, loved the additional flavor from the seeds.  I need to repeat this one to see if it performs the same.  My gut says that the starter was more active with the rye incorporated into the feed, but with so many variables at work with every batch, who knows?!?!?  :)

Some pics.......

Happy baking, all!

Rich

Comments

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Your bread looks great! Nice rise and score. I've found that AP when used in my starter makes it VERY active. So it could be that your starter reacts differently with different flours too. And yes, I think the skin was dry because you didn't put it in a bag in the fridge.  But again, great bake!

gavinc's picture
gavinc

Looks great. I was interested in your self-assessment of the dough.  One gets to know when there is room for improvement, however, from this side, it looks great!

Cheers

Gavin

rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

Thanks for the compliments!  As long as I come out with good loaves, I enjoy observing the differences and tying them back to parts of the process I may have changed, or performed differently.

Rich

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

and I notice no Durum this time..I still remember your 1:2;3 loaf with the durum flour.....Isn't it a shame that black sesame seeds are so expensive? Is it the same in the US? Love the taste though... Kat

rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

Good memory, Kat!  No durum this time since I was playing with the starter feed, and wanted to get a sense for the flavor component from that.  As I think most of us do, I tend to play around with my different flour additions from week to week or month to month so that my usual recipe doesn't get stale (ridiculously bad bread pun!) :)

It seems that spices of any kind tend to be very expensive unless I shop online (which means planning in advance a bit.)  I won't tell you what I paid for those black sesame seeds, as they were a bit of an impromptu purchase (which is good since I forgot the rice flour for banneton dusting.....even though it was right behind me when I pulled the sesame seeds off the shelf!)  Next bake, the seeds are going to go INTO the loaf so that there's a bit more sesame flavor in every bite.

Thanks for checking in on me! :)

Rich