A New Sourdough

Boule

I mentioned in my blogpost yesterday how much I loved this bread. It's really fantastically sweet-- which may be a combination of the flour mixture and that I managed to use the starter right at the peak of it's feeding when it smells slightly sweet. I am including the recipe here so anyone can try it. It is a modified version of Peter Reinhart's San Francisco Sourdough Bread from Artisan Breads Every Day. This bread spends an incredible amount of time rising, but it does not require a significant amount of interference.

Ear-- finally able to use the lame properly

 This bread is 76% hydration. However, I used a lot of all-purpose instead of bread flour this last time so I might up the hydration to 77% to compensate. I also need to incorporate a bit more air when I am kneading as my last two breads have not had quite the open crumb that I desire.

Not perfect crumb, but still quite good

Ingredients: 
Starter

•  56.5g 100% hydration starter
• 227g Whole Wheat Flour
• 150g Water, room temperature

Dough

•  All of the starter
• 445g Water (warm)
• 567g Unbleached Bread Flour (I used a combination of bread flour and-- when I ran out of that-- a high-protein all-purpose flour-- King Arthur's)
• 18g Salt

Directions
Starter (Day 1)

• Mix the ingredients for the starter together about 8 hours befor you plan to use it.
• Make sure you mix it with a for or something that will help incorporate a little air.
• Cover the bowl or jar and leave it to mature overnight at room temperature. Otherwise, the starter can rest in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Final Dough (Day 2)

• The starter, by now, should be all bubbly and smell slightly sweet.
• Dissolve the starter in the water.
• Then add the unbleached flour and the salt and mix into tacky ball. Let the dough rest for five minutes.
• The knead the dough by hand for 3 minutes. Try to incorporate air.
• Then do the first Peter Reinhart stretch-and-fold. Do four total with 10 minutes in between each.
• Depending on how warm your kitchen is, let the dough rest out (covered) for 1.5-2 hours before placing in the refrigerator. It was about 75 degrees in my kitchen and I let the dough sit out for 2 hours. Place it in the refrigerator overnight.

Shaping and Baking (Day 3)

•  Take the bread out of the refrigerator 5-6 hours before baking. Let it rest on at room temperature for 2-3 hours, depending upon the room temperature. The bread was still very cold at 2 hours, so I waited the extra hour.
• Then turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it. It can make two 1.5lb loaves or three 1lb loaves. Preshape.
• Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes, and then do the final shaping. Cover the loaves and let them rise for 2-3 hours. My loaves needed three hours. The first loaf we baked after two hours and I think that it could have used a little extra rising time, while the second one we baked at three hours and it turned out better.
• 20 minutes before baking, heat up the your oven with your stone-and-broth-pot or dutch oven to 500 degrees F.
• Turn your dough onto a floured peel and score it right before you put it into the oven. Turn the oven down to 450 degrees F (425 convection). 
• Let the dough bake under steam for 30-35 minutes, making sure that the edges of your scoring marks have turned golden.
• Then bake it for 20-25 minutes without steam, ensuring that it has an internal temperature of 212 degrees. It should be fairly light in weight and dark brown in color.
• Wait at least 30 minutes before slicing.

 Enjoy!

Bread for Cerinthus

Debris

I realized recently that although I love to bake bread, I am more of a bread-for-eating person than a cookistry/baker artist. I like the warmth, friendliness, and flavor of the bread and I am only going to make it if it sounds like something that I would enjoy eating. So as much as I tried to keep myself from making Tartine Bread in order to explore other options, I keep coming back to it. When Cerinthus was here, I made us a loaf of the Country Bread for a picnic lunch. It was lovely.

Crackly, wonderfully caramelized crust.

More importantly, I may take a hiatus from bread baking in general. I love it and it's fabulous, but it's incredibly hot here and the oven makes it stifling. Furthermore, most of my favorite bread recipes take a lot of time and I am taking two classes at the local big university, preparing graduate school applications, and studying for my fall exams, so I have more than enough on my plate. I will definitely miss my bread, though, and I think it will make a major comeback this winter.

Moist, soft, flavorful crumb.

In the meantime, I will do some other cooking blogging as well as other random thoughts that come to mind.

Results of Whole-Wheat Tartine

Whole Wheat Tartine Bread-- YUM

This is a bit of cheat-- it's just over 30% whole wheat, but it's still very healthy and amazing. This is the best whole wheat loaf that has ever come out of my oven-- either here or at my Alma Mater. Unfortunately, I can't take the credit for this one. Servia did each step of the process on her own (her first wild-yeast bread since college and her first bread since I was very young). I simply read the directions out of Tartine Bread and threw out a pointer here or there. But this is her beautiful loaf and it will be my breakfast for the next few mornings.

A detailed explanation of the recipe comes from TX Famer on The Fresh Loaf, whose breads are absolutely stunning (from what I've seen on yeast spotting).

Crust

Crumb

More Crumb [1]

Reinhart says in all of his books that whole wheat needs honey (or other sweetener) because it is too bitter. This is apparently not true, so long as the wheat has a long time to ferment and increase the flavor. The particular loaf does have some white flour in it, but the flavor comes from the whole grain and I think it's absolutely lovely.

For the white Tartine loaf I am giving to a family friend, I finally managed one semi-decent ear (my scoring technique is getting better!).

Ear! i.e. the protruding slash on the bread.

Gift Loaf.

Gift loaves always make me nervous because I can't check out the crumb first. The loaf is lightweight, though, which should mean that the water cooked out of it. I am hoping my computer-savior likes it!

Endnotes

1. The bread actually had more air holes than this but it was sliced so thin that it bent in on itself when I tried to lean it up on the other bread.