I’m excited with the results

I have over many months of reading and testing, finally got the results that I’m happy with. Firstly with my favourite sourdough recipe, and secondly with a great Pizza crust that eliminates all those that have gone before it. I won’t bore you with my long saga as it is almost identical to many I’ve read on this site; struggling with many ways of maintaining cultures, methods of dough preparation etc.

In short, my success is due to getting things right at every step – finally.

I’ve learned to recognise a fully active culture. I’ve learned to calculate water temperature so the dough is spot on when taken from the mixer. I’ve learned about Autolyse and when and when not to use it. I’ve learned to be patient in the mystical art of fermentation and folding. I’ve learned the subtle differences of sourdough methods to other pre-ferments. And what’s really made me tune into this is the basic understanding of what’s happing to the ingredients at each step and why I have to do things correctly.

The link below is to some pictures from last weekend.

Pictures two and three is my sourdough. (65% hydration, unbleached flour and 10% organic rye). Here I used a bread pan so I can slice the sourdough for sandwiches and toast.

Picture one is my pizza crust just after being put into my backyard brick oven. Instant oven spring evident in picture. The oven was about 330 C at this point.

All hail Jeffrey Hamelman -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27771627@N07/sets/72157607176379220/

Regards,

Gavin.