UK baking includes two classic sourdoughs

I just got home last night from the UK (still really jet-lagged!) where I keep a supply of sourdough starter that I carried over last year in checked baggage from our home in California.  I revived it fairly easily after it had been left in the fridge for several months. I enjoy baking for family and friends when I am in town, but I had a number of baking mishaps early in our stay for a variety of reasons, so I was glad to have a couple bakes go well after a number of disappointments.  Not sure if my starter wasn't fully recovered when I started or (as I suspect), I was trying to fit the baking into my schedule and had some over-proofing. I was also very happy to find a Mason Cash clay baker at a local store in the UK, which I thought would help me get back on track.

The first recipe I made included whole wheat and spelt with bread flour above.  The new baker worked very well, helping produce a nice loaf. You'll see the recipe at bottom.

The second loaf I made is more of a classic sourdough, without any added whole wheat or spelt.

I didn't get to try the bread, as we gave it to friends.  They enjoyed it and sent me this crumb shot of the loaf with the added whole wheat and spelt.

My other friends sent me this crumb shot from the bread flour loaf (no WW or spelt).

I also made some cranberry orange walnut bread, banana chocolate walnut bread, five grain levain bread, sourdough rolls and flatbreads, see below. I made the flatbreads with feta, stilton, olives and spices for our friends. I am playing around with the recipe and may post something later.

I had to make pizza as well, of course. We were getting ready to leave, so I wanted to use up sourdough, olives and pepperoni I had in the fridge.

Here are the sourdough rolls I shared in an earlier post.

Below you'll find the recipe for the Classic Sourdough with added whole wheat and spelt. (For the other loaf, I just used all bread flour, with no spelt or ww).

Classic Sourdough with spelt and whole wheat flour

Makes: One 2 pound loaf.

Method adapted from: Classic Sourdoughs by Ed and Jean Wood.

I varied the recipe by using my active starter that was a 70/20/10 mix of AP flour, WW flour and dark rye at 100% hydration and added whole wheat and spelt flour. I really liked this mix, as it added a bit of texture to the loaf as the original recipe starter has no whole wheat or rye and there only white AP flour in the bread dough. I also changed the cold fermentation, extending it considerably by adding a bulk fermentation phase.

Ingredients:

Final Dough:

• 230 grams (about 1 cup or 240 ml) active starter, 70/20/10 mix of AP, WW and Rye flours at 100% hydration
• 300 grams water (Approximately 1 1/2 cups or 360 ml water)
• 10 grams salt (about 2 teaspoons)
• 250 grams strong white bread flour (about 2 cups)
• 125 grams spelt flour (about 1 cup)
• 125 grams strong whole wheat bread flour (about 1 cup)

Method:

1. Mixing the dough. Pour the starter into a mixing bowl. Add the water and mix well.  Add the flour a little bit at a time until it starts to stiffen.  Hold some flour out to knead in a bit later.  Let the mix autolyze for 30 minutes and then add then fold in the salt.
2. Kneading the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in some of the remaining flour if the dough is too sticky. Knead for about 10 minutes until it the dough is smooth and easy to handle.
3. Bulk fermentation. Lightly coat a glass bowl with olive oil and place the dough ball into the bowl, making sure that the top of the dough ball has a thin coat oil. Cover and bulk ferment in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. The original recipe calls for it to proof at room temperature for 8-12 hours, so I made a major change here. Over this period in the refrigerator, the dough should about double in size.
4. Shaping and final proof. Use a spatula to ease the dough out onto a floured surface. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, shape it into a rough ball, cover it with a cloth, and let it rest again for 30 minutes. Now, shape the dough into a boule or oblong loaf and place it seam-side up into a banneton coated in brown rice flour. Put in a clean plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
5. Baking the loaf. The next morning (or longer if you are letting it retard for an extended period), remove the loaf from the refrigerator and let it warm up before baking. You should be the judge of how long you need it to warm up.  My loaf needed to pop up a bit, so I let it warm up while I preheated the oven to 500 degrees (260 degrees C) along with my new clay baker.  After popping into the baker and scoring the bread, I sprayed a light mist of water on the dough, trying to avoid the hot surface, as I was hoping for a really beautiful crust. I baked it for 30 minutes in the clay baker at 500, and then lowered it to 450 for another 10-15 minutes. If you don't have a covered baker, a baking stone works well with steam. Make sure your steaming apparatus is ready and bake with steam for the first 20 minutes or so. Turn the temperature down to 450 degrees (235 C) and bake for 30 minutes, and then take the temperature down to 435 degrees (225 C) for the final browning, which is another 10 minutes or so, depending on the type of crust you like.  We tend to like a bolder crust, so I bake it a bit longer. Watch it closely during this phase.
6. Cooling and slicing the loaf:  Remove the loaf from the covered baker tray or stone and let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.