First post, not first Sourdough
Hi, and thanks to all posters I've been spying on in the last year as I practice making my sourdough!
I'm a home hobbyist... playing for fun and flavor. I haven't followed a recipe for over 6 months - I find more creative adventure by guessing, learning how the dough feels, watching it rise properly (or not), watching it burn (in the BBQ), etc. etc.
Here are some photos of my last batch... The dough was fairly dry compared to most of my experiments in the last 6 months - I couldn't give you a percentage... I didn't really measure anything :) - I know there was just over 500ml of water, and that my starter is roughly 100%.
I used roughly a cup of cold starter (from fridge), 520ish mls of warm/almost hot tap water, and enough white flour to make my dough. *edit - oh yeah, there is also a big glob of honey, maybe 2-3 tbsp, and a dollop of soft butter (which melted in easy due to hot water). I let it rest for ~30 min, then added 20g of salt which I had moistened and added to some flour to make a paste, then spread and kneaded it in. All mixing was done in a plastic bowl with a metal spoon, then with hands.
I let it proof in the covered bowl for about 3 hours, then worked it down, divided, and placed into pans where they rose another ~4hours inside my oven (off) with a bowl of hot water under the light, with light on for first hour. I had them too close together, and they decided to join together... I had to gently cut them apart, pull them out, let oven heat to 460F, insert pans, throw in about a cup of water for steam, and set the crust for 10 min. Then turned down to 350 for another 25 mins, turned oven off, let some heat out, and let them sit in the oven for another ~6-10 minutes.
How's that for a recipe?? it was fun, bread tastes great, perfect crumb for sandwiches and toast. Love it! Only thing missing, which I was hoping for, was a little more oven spring.
Cheers!
so i would say that they were 100% proofed, No spring isn't a problem in my book unless they fall. For spring you want them in the oven at 85% - 90% proofed. I do this by filling the pan a little over half full of dough and when it just rises above the rim in the middle, that is 85% and if you don't catch it till 90% - no worries. Springs every time that way. Love your first post and.......
happy baking
Those look great, and thanks for sharing!
I agree with dabrownman: sounds like they'd already maxed out before they were popped into the oven. Good thing you caught them before they started collapsing!
Thanks - I think you're right about the spring thing, I also might have worked the dough a little too much... either way... it's still a good one. Better than the batch shown by my profile avatar :)