San Joaquin Sourdough, my take

I've been reading David's many posts on his blog about San Joaquin Sourdough, a formula he developed that was inspired by a long bulk ferment Janedo wrote about after a visit with Anis Bouabsa.  David had tried enough variations of this formula I had to do some reading before I settled on the approach I was going to take for my first attempt. 

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I started with a 65% hydration starter that I refereshed and let mature for approximately 6 hours.  It had definitely started to grow but had not reached the peak of it's activity when i proceeded to the next step.  I then incoorporated 100 grams of the 65% levain with:

• 370 g water
• 450 g bread flour
• 10 g dark rye flour
• 40 g whole wheat flour

I mixed and let autolyze for approximately 30 minutes.  I then added:

• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 10 g sea salt

I proceeded to fold this mixture 3 times in the bowl, for approximately 15 folds each time, spaced about 20 minutes apart.  I intended on 20 folds but the dough seemed to have enough, or maybe too much strength after 15 turns so I stopped when the dough told me to.

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After mixing and kneading (folding) I placed the dough in the fridge overnight.  Instead of keeping the dough in the fridge until just prior to shaping as David suggests I removed it and placed in a cool room (~55 degrees F) to encourage a little more growth.  I have found that placing the dough my fridge may retard it a bit too much and I desired a little growth before dividing and shaping.  The time in the fridge was about 15 hours, followed by about 5 hours in the cooler (50 degree) room.  I then divided the dough into 2 pieces and pre-shaped, and let sit for approximately 1 hour.  I then did the final shape and let sit again for approximately 45 minutes.  During the time in between shapings there is not much growth to the dough, you are expecting most of your rise once the loaf hits the oven.  I pre-heated my oven to 500 degrees F, about 1 hour prior to baking.  I scored the loaves I added some steam once I added the loaves.  About ten minutes into the bake I was pleased to look into the oven and see that the loaves were getting a nice oven spring and my score was going to result in a nice 'ear', which was pretty exciting since this doesn't happen just every day for me....so I had to get a pic:

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I baked the loaves about 40 minutes, reducing the temp from 500 to 460 once the loaves were in the oven.

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As for the crumb, it is very open, has great flecks of whole wheat and rye, although that is not very evident from these photos, and flavor is out of this world!

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As David has done, I envision experimenting around more with these methods and the ingredients, learning from them and creating my own favorite formula....

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By the way, this bread was a great compliment to the strawberry jalapeno glazed ribs that came off the grill not long after this bread cooled....

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