agres's blog

I think most sourdough recipes/ methods/ techniques come from professional bakers or people writing books that are baking so much bread that they might as well be professional bakers. I am not sure these folks are writing to solve my needs. I want a nice loaf of sourdough bread every couple of days, with minimum effort.

My current solution is to take a bit (~100 grams) of the dough from my current batch of dough, and put it in a storage container in the refrigerator before setting the dough to bulk ferment.

Ok, know your skills - bakers percentages and dough handling. Know how to prepare and use leaven.

About 55 years ago, my maiden aunt, who had actually lived in Paris, gave me a copy of "Larousse Gastronomique".

Under the entry "Bread" it says:

When I was in the 4th grade, my mother taught me how to make "butter horn rolls".  Later, circa 1968, when I was in high school, my father was traveling a good deal, often arriving home about 5 am. I established the routine of having fresh croissants waiting for him, then I would catch the school bus at 6 am. 

Modern baking with commercial cultivars of wheat, blended flours, thermostat controlled ovens, and particularly commercial yeast is predictable. Yes, it takes skill, and there is always something to learn that will make the product better, but it is predicable. 

I have been grinding my own flour for a few years now, and every time I try new kinds of grain or new blends of grain, I have increased respect for the bakers of 500 or a thousand years ago.

I am not a purist, but still, I have always thought that pain de campagne should be 100% whole wheat, but somehow, I could not make a highly palatable pain de campagne from 100% whole wheat. There were American whole wheat breads with lots of sugar and fat.  There were German and Polish whole wheat breads well suited for a spread of herring or smoked meats with mustard.

I like "hard core" sourdough - I often make big loaves of 100% whole wheat entirely leavened by sourdough. 

However, there has been a big promotion of sourdough in the mainstream media because of a perceived shortage of baker's yeast.  This is silly. Sourdough should be baked for its virtues.  And, yeast breads should be baked for their virtues.

In my search for real Pain de Campagne, I made various recipes for Poilane style bread a few times. They are good. (Fresh bread is good by its nature). However, my experience is that it is possible to make a better bread of that style than the recipes floating around the net produce:

A 1.75 kg loaf from high extraction (85%) stone ground flour,  mixed in a stand mixer.

ingredients: flour, water, salt, and egg white glaze

procedure :

Weigh a kilo of flour and 20 grams of salt 

Put 300 grams of very active, very liquid, starter in stand mixer 

Add 300 gm water, mix in enough flour by hand fulls to make a thick batter.

Let ferment at 68F, for a 3 hours.

Add 300 gm water, and mix in enough to make enough flour to make a thick batter.

Let ferment at 68F, for a 3 hours.

Two large (kilo) loaves baking

I milled and sifted a little over a kilo of high extraction flour (containing some sprouted and dried grain).