San Francisco Country Sourdough – Even Better with Seeds

Continuing my bread baking jag on the North Coast, yesterday I baked the best-looking breads I’d ever produced. The formula is the same “San Francisco Country Sourdough” I’ve posted before (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20471/san-francisco-country-sourdough—take-two), except I used Central Milling Artisan Baker’s Craft flour in place of KAF AP, and I rolled the three mini-baguettes in KAF’s seed mix. I also made a 800+ gram batard.

I have gotten comfortable enough with this dough that I could focus on visual aesthetics.  I took care to divide the dough ball so that part of the taut surface formed one side of each piece. I was able to shape the three mini-baguettes so all were about the same size and shape, and the scoring was pretty good.  My very happy starter and my magic SFBI linen helped provide good grigne. The downside of good open cuts with seeded baguettes is you don’t end up with as many seeds on top…a small price to pay.

I’ve got to find a stronger glue for the seeds.

The batard was preshaped as a boule, then shaped as a tight oblong, not a long torpedo shape.  In baking, it opened up and sproinged hugely. It has a really nice moist chewy crumb.

Even if I hadn’t enjoyed the Challah, the pastries, the rye breads, and the other sourdoughs I’ve learned to bake this year, this bread alone would make all my baking efforts worth it. I wonder how I’ll tweak it next.

Pictured below is the bread bowl shared with our dinner guests last night—seeded SFCSD baguette, SFCSD batard and SFBI Walnut-Raisin Sourdough. Sourdough can be pretty sweet.

Glenn

Submitted to YeastSpotting (http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/)