Baking sourdough in a loaf tin (or similar) - hints?
I'm still playing happily with my friend's recipe that's 300 g of 50:50 levain, 200 g water, 400 g flour, 2 TBS salt 1 TBS sea salt flakes (about 11 g) (i.e. 63% hydration). I'm varying the hydration a little bit, adding seeds other grains, varying the proportion of strong flour, rye, other flour, adding vital wheat gluten or not, and experimenting with different timings and temperatures for bulk fermentation, shaping, cold proofing. My baking technique has settled down to be baking 20 min in a preheated Dutch oven lid closed at 240 then 20 min lid off at 230. Then trying to leave it to be cooled enough to cut.
All is well. Thanks to the great advice I've had on here. Some frisbees, evolving into Tam O'Shanters, and some loaves actually looking like an actual boule, and everything delicious.
So, here's my question. How should I adapt my process to bake in a loaf tin rather than a Dutch oven? My current process is to create the levain, then fermentolyse, then add salt, stretch and fold somewhat, bulk ferment, shape (not something I'm good at but so far I get away with it mostly), cold-proof in a rice flour undercoated banneton for at least 12 hours, then turn out onto baking paper, which I cut to a sling, and pop into my pre-heated Dutch oven.
How can I adapt this to baking in a loaf tin? Should I cold proof in the loaf tin? If so, should this loaf tin be oiled/greased and floured before baking? Is cold proofing in a loaf tin even a thing? Should I just pop it into the oven after letting it rise after shaping?
What kind of size accommodation should I make for rise? Say I've got 500 ml of dough - should I use e.g. a 750 ml capacity loaf tin?
Anything else I should be aware of?
You might well ask why I would want to bake in a loaf tin. It's because some of the doughs I'm experimenting with are rather slack and some have too much non-gluten grain in them to structure well. Also I just like doing new things.
Thanks for your advice!
- Heather
That seems like an awful lot of salt. Is that a typo?
You're right - I meant to say 1 TBS - and I use Maldon Sea salt flakes which don't pack closely, so that's about 11 grams.
but find kosher salt to be as good in bread. We actually buy it kind of bulk in a 1.5 kg pail instead of the little packages. I really like it on focaccia, vegetables and meat but find it too pricey to use in anything where the salt dissolves and you lose the advantage the flakes provide.
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Nothing different except you use a loaf pan. Never had a problem baking about 40 minutes at 375. A lengthwise score right down the middle never hurt. When shaping, keep the dough evenly distributed in the pan (the more even it is the more even the loaf will be). My standard procedure is, mix everything, rise 2x, hand knead to degas, rise 2x, shape, go in the pan, rise 2x, bake. How much dough is needed is up to you. As I go for a doubling in size about enough dough to fill the pan about half way. I don't weight anything so that's all I have on that. Enjoy!
thanks, phaz- interesting! that that's a lot of rising - I'm counting 6? What difference do you find it makes? or do you just like punching down the dough ? ;-) I would have thought the yeast might be exhausted by that time. But clearly not.
Rise 2x means one doubling
...and makes more sense!
Yeah that's it, 2x means about a doubling in volume. is that too much, try it and see for yourself! Enjoy!
Most of my recent bakes have been a high percent whole grain, and do best in a loaf pan. The dough weight is ~ 950 gm, and produces the shape I prefer in a 8.5 x 4.5 in pan. The next size up still makes great bread, but it is a wider, more squatty loaf. I have not tried a cold retard in the pan, so not much help there.
You may have already read this?
Best wishes,
Mary
useful reference around pan sizes! (and loads of nuggets in the comments) thanks!
White bread flour SD loaf with caramelized onions in a 16" Wilton pan. Old photos from last year. Cold-proofed 12 hours in the pan before baking, with steam. I have a large granite-ware covered roaster which will hold this large pan...something for a future experiment. Best wishes. Dave