jamesjr54's blog

My 100% Hydration starter has been realy active lately, so I've made a few loaves using just it, no commercial yeast. Thanks to all the help available here, and practice, they're getting better and better. Here are today's loaves. Unfortunately, I got distracted, and forgot to turn the oven down after 20 mins. SO they're a tad underdone inside. But delicious.

Made this today in anticipation of turkey sandwiches over the next few days. From Breadtopia http://www.breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/

White whole wheat, rye, spelt, KA AP. 

I did a 3-day process: 12 hour overnight first proof, 24-hour cold retard, and 4.5 hour final proof. Baked in my combo cooker, 20 mins covered, 25 uncovered @485F with a preheat.

Have to wait to open it. But it smells incredible! 

Knowing I'd work at home today (Wednesday) I made a preferment Tuesday morning: 

100 G KA Bread flour

100 G 100% hydration starter

60 g water

Tuesday night I made the dough:

All of the preferment

400 g KA all purpose

35 g rye

35 g oat flour

15 g salt

44o g water

30 min autolyse

Was really wet, so added flour until I could get some development. (Think I need to learn how to calculate the starter into the final %s. Was aiming for 68-70% hydration)

15 minutes kneading

Baked these today from Bread Cetera. Very nice taste, and fun to make. Overnight levain, 20 min autolyse, 1 hr bulk ferment, 30 min rest, fold, slurry, cut, stack, 1.5 hr proof. Baked on its side 15 minutes @ 450F w/steam; bake w/o steam 25 min. 

Our friends from Israel (wife) and Idaho (husband) joined us for a bike ride today as temperatures in New England hit 80F! 

Baked a version of Lumos' Swiss/Bernese Oberland today. I think hydration was a little too high, and gluten not developed enough. Still happy with my progress. And tastes great!

2.5 hrs w/ 2 S&F bulk ferment

14 hr cold retard

3 hr final proof

20 minutes in combo cooker in non-preheated 550F oven. Uncovered and cooked 35 minutes at 475F.

And it's already gone for lunch! 

I modified Mike Avery's San Francisco sourdough recipe by adding 3 stretch and folds over 2 hours.  I like this recipe for its nice sour flavor. Used my 100% hydration whole wheat starter. Proofed 11 hours overnight at room temperature, @ 75F here in sunny coastal New England, after shaping. Baked @ 400F for 20 minutes w/steam, then 35 more @ 375, with 10 minute, oven-off drying. I think it's a bit overproofed. I did not get the oven spring I expected, but very happy with the flavor and crumb. The slump on the left happened when it kind of slid off the stone on its way in.

So I wanted to make a batch of Black Canyon sourdough last night, to repay my neighbor for the 2 lbs of fresh-caught cod he gave us. No mise en place. Pretty distracted after work etc. But in I plunged, only to come up about 1.5 C short of All-Purpose flour. Doh! So I used a combo of spelt, oat and White Whole Wheat bread flour from Whole Foods. It took about 45-50 minutes of vigorous kneading by hand to get any structure and windowpane.