The Fresh Loaf

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Country Loaf

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Country Loaf

Hey gang. I made some sourdough pizza for my lady the other night, and as I was making the dough I said to myself, "I'm going to make some bread!"

I wanted to raise the hydration level of my basic loaf up a notch, from 75 to 77, and I had extra levain so I decided to add more for flavor and punch by going from 18% to 20% of the total, AND I decided to keep the normal timing of the batch. 

Bakers, what does that mean?? If you raise your levain percentage and keep the same timing...it's going to overproof slightly. But, I'm all for it. I wanted to overproof to lower the oven spring and come out with a wider dough—and I don't know how else to do that. Plus, the timing just worked better for sleeping in on a weekend morning. 

 

BRDCLC is my favorite calculator on planet earth. Ok, that's all I wanted to say. 

 

Cute little thing. 

 

Comments

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Rajan that  looks pretty good loaf  and it looks like you have broken away from the 100% wholewheat bread that you used to bake for the monks at the monastery. No doubt your lady approved!  With your desire to have less oven spring  perhaps it is more a case of a fuller proof rather than overproof and a 2% difference in the amount of levain isn't going to be dramatic change in the BF or proof times times.

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Ya, I love not having to use WW my god. You are quite wise, and I will refer to this as a full proof from now on. 

yozzause's picture
yozzause

I think all the work you did with 100% WW has stood you in very good sted  for the great variety of flours that you now have at your disposal.

I know that on occasions I have had to make the conscious decision not to attempt slashing dough pieces as the proof has become full to the point that collapse is inevitable if the dough is not handled with extreme care. This is when i would consider over proofed being the correct term and the result reflected in the quality of the loaf.    I don't see that point having been reached in your loaf of bread .                                                   I look forward to seeing your Blog writings on your baking and brewing  days at the Monastery.

kind regards Derek

Benito's picture
Benito

Great crumb Rajan, I’m sure you were quite pleased with this bake, I certainly would be.

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Very pleased. And now I'm remembering that I used to make donuts...time to give that a try again.