72% Hydration White Sourdough

      With a rainy day off work, this past Tuesday I decided to make some sourdough bread. I fed my sourdough starter (composed of King Arthur bread flour) that afternoon, which left me until that evening to decide on what recipe I would follow. 

      Being a fan of Richard Bertinet, I eventually decided to use a version of his “White Sourdough” recipe from his book, “Crumb”. This is a great book for all things bread, by the way. I highly recommend it!

      So, around 7:30 P.M., I mixed up the bread. The formula was as follows:

• 1,000g King Arthur Bread Flour
• 20g Salt
• 400g Sourdough Starter, 100% hydration
• 720g Water

Obviously the ingredients for this bread are quite simple. It’s also fairly easy to work with, being only 72% hydration.

      Once I had combined all of the above ingredients, I kneaded it (by slap-and-fold) until it passed the windowpane test. All in all, I’d say it took around 10 minutes to build the gluten structure properly.

      After then letting it rest for about an hour at around 80 degrees F (in our water heating room), I gave it a fold on the counter. It then went back into the bowl to rest for yet another hour, at which point it passed the “poke” test.

      Now the bread was ready for its final proof. I dumped it onto the counter, divided it in half, and roughly formed the halves into boule shapes. I then let it rest on the counter for about 25 minutes. After this time, I shaped one of the boules into a batard, and I reformed the other into a boule. Into the proofing baskets and subsequently to the fridge they went.

      They proofed for a total of 14 hours at around 38-40 degrees F before being baked. I loaded them onto my baking stone at 475 degrees F on the oven’s convection bake setting, after which I dumped about a cup of water into the bottom of the oven for steam (it is built like a tray to hold water, intended for the steam cleaning setting). After 5 minutes, I turned the oven down to 425 degrees F and baked for another 20 minutes. Then it was turned down to 400 degrees F and baked for yet another 5-10 minutes. This was the result...

Have a good weekend everyone.