September 9, 2009 - 3:09pm
Today's Sourdough
I haven't shared any photographs of my bread yet and I decided it was time to do so.
Today I made my regular 5% whole wheat straight sourdough boules. The dough was made using a 4X expansion last night and a 4X expansion this morning. Baker's percentage is 69. Pretty sticky so I gave it two folds at 20 minutes and two more at 40. (Would have gone 30/60 but I had to leave for a while). Baked in a cloche for 15 minutes and 27 more at 435.
The slash is my "house" leaf slash.
And here's the crumb!
Enjoy!
Jay
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Looks good. I have a few questions though:
What do you mean by 4X expansion?
You wrote "Baker's percentage is 69", is that the hydration level?
The crust looks real nice on your bread. I have been baking my breads at much higher temperatures for much shorter time (475-550 for 12-20 minutes), but maybe I should start experimenting with the lower temperatures.
Thanks for sharing your bread.
Danny - Sour Flour
http://www.sourflour.org
Hi Danny!
My "standard" expansion is 100 grams of bakers percentage (BP) 100 starter plus 400 (4X expasion) grams of water and flour (equal...I keep it at BP 100 and let the levain go overnight. Then in the morning I do a second 4X expansion but adjust the water and flour. So it is roughly 1300 grams of flour and 700 of water (for a total of 2000 grams added to 500, again 4X). By BP 69 I am referring to the baker's percentage and hydration.
On the occasions when I decide to use my wood fired oven I bake hotter - up in the 550 range, but. I like to get the crumb up in the 208 range and if the oven is too hot the crust will get too dark so...I take it a little slower.
We ate half a loaf with dinner. The crumb was even more varied and open than the photo showed For some reason the area under the long slit had smaller bubble than to the side. I am going to have to check this out more carefully. It could be that the slit actually "degasses" the area nearby???
Thanks for the comments!
Jay
And I envy you for your wood-fired oven.---cake diva
It's always nice to hear kind words!
I built the WFO for bread but use it almost exclusively for pizza and cooking pot roasta and other slow cooked things (like oven dried tomatoes). Once you have one you probably never want to be without one. They are addictive!
Jay
Your expansion term is confusing me, But then I confuse easily. I think your bread and pictures are lovely. Thanks, Ray
I use expansion to describe the added amount. For example a 1X expansion would involve a 100 gram addition to a 100 grm base, a 4X expansion involvea a 400 gram addition to a 100 gram base. In my case I literally add 499 grams of water and flour to 100 grams of sourdough starter. The starter is BP 100 soi it technically contains 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. I always do m first expansion at BP 100 so the expansion is 200 grams of flour and 200 grams of water;, This creates a levain of 500 grams which I let ferment overnight ont he coutner. The nextexpansion is 4X 500 grams (i.e. 2000 grams) of water and lfour. I ust the desired BP to determine the amount of flour and water but in crude values it is 1250 grams of flour and 750 grams of water. From there it is about 3 hours of bulk fermentation, about 1 1/2 horus of proofing, and the baking!
Hope that helps
Jay
Your bread looks great.Thank you for the last explanation. I'm interested in your use of the cloche. Is the cloche hot when you put the dough in it? If so how do you manage to get it in without getting it stuck to the lip of the cloche? Also what size banneton and cloche accomadates this amount of dough? I used to put Dan Leder's rye bread from a banneton into ahot cloche with occasionally a miss. I have recently been thinking of repeating this but don't know if I have the right sizes as I have forgotten which ones I used.
Herb
To mimic a WFO the cloche needs to be HOT. I usually bake at 435. I load the cloches in the oven about an hour before baking and give them at least 45 minutes to reach temperature. (I often check them with my infrared thermometer but 45 minutes is pretty safe.) One big advantage of the cloche is that you don't need to steam the oven - the humidity comes from the bread much like a WFO. Helps avoid oven glass breakage (voice of experience) and gives really pretty crust. I bake for 15 minutes with the lid on, then remove it and bake for about 27 more minutes. On 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pound loaves that gives me an internal temperature around 208 and the darker, rustic crust I prefer.
I often do successive bakes in the cloches so I put the lids in a second oven at 435 while the bread bakes without the lid.
Hope that helps!
Jay
I just caught an error up higher when describing my expansion nomenclature. For a 4X expansion it should have said I add 400 grams of water and flour to 100 grams of starter (not 499). Sorry about that!
Jay