After a few months of baking tasty pancakes and frisbees, I finally got a pretty good sourdough bread. Photos at B & T Country Sourdough
I used the formula from the Brød & Taylor proofer instructions B & T Proofer Instructions & Recipes with some adjustments.
I think the frisbee problems included these:
- Too much water. Bittman's book (which I used to start trying sourdough after getting pretty comfortable with yeasted breads) really emphasizes using wet hands and wet tools and a wet surface to add more water to the dough at every fold. Bad idea, these techniques didn't work with Bittman bread, Hamelman's formulas in "Bread", or even the B & T proofer. I held back some water, using just enough to incorporate all the flour, dried my hands after washing them before folds, and did not spritz water on the board.
- Too low temp. Room temp fermentation and proofing (usually around 72℉) was not getting the fermentation or proofing done in anywhere close to the guideline times in the formulas. I didn't want to go a lot longer because I use a rye starter and there is some rye flour in the formula, and I wanted to avoid the starch attack. Monitoring the temp and turning the oven light on and off was a PITA (not the bread) so I got the proofer. Using the temps in the recipes that came with it didn't help much, either. But I heard the Foodgeek mention in a video in an offhand way that he always ferments and proofs at 85℉ / 30℃. And that worked great. The fermentation and proof matched the timings in the formulas, even if the formula DDT was 76℉ (Hamelman's starter must be a lot friskier than mine). Next time I'll ferment the levain at 85℉ / 30℃ as well. The faster fermentation really does create a tangier flavor, favoring the acid producing bacteria,
- No overnight retarded proof. Natural yeasts go completely dormant in our fridge at 39℉ (maybe I'll try leaving a dough in for 24 - 48 hours, but nothing happens in 12 hours), So I didn't use the fridge at first. But since the dough was so slack, I couldn't score it. Now, I ferment in the proofer for 1 - 1.5 hrs until it's close to passing the poke test, and then into the fridge for 12 hrs in the banneton in a plastic bag. The dough stands up a lot better and scores easily.
I plan to make this same formula a couple more times, for practice. I'll try to cut back on the strength-building a bit (I did tension pulls after each of the folds) to ease up a bit on elasticity so that I get all the oven spring I can. And maybe the dough could handle a little bit more water as long as I don't add any more during the folds.
Once I'm in the sourdough groove, I want to try higher whole wheat %, mixed whole wheat and rye formulas (from a delicious frisbee from a mixed flour miche in "Bread", and some rye from "The Rye Baker".