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Maurizio's Country Sourdough With Less Levain & Longer Autolyse

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This bread was a challenge! My flour felt thirsty at the beginning, so I think the hydration was bumped up to about 83% and easily the highest hydration, mostly white flour bread I've worked with. Bulk fermentation was much quicker than usual and I overproofed it by a bit. Even with a generous dusting of rice flour, it still stuck to the banneton quite a bit. 

Despite all of those challenges, I'm really happy with the taste of this bread. I'm going back to basics for the next bake, so I can get more practice at a hydration level I'm more comfortable with. 

Cheers!

Tartine with bolted flour

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Today I tried Maurizio's take on the Tartine recipe today, using bolted Warthog Flour as the whole wheat and Barton Springs 00 for the remainder.  I let it proof at room temperature and then baked.  I definitely got a denser loaf than I was expecting, with the larger air pockets accumulating near the top.  I was a bit disappointed with the flatter loaf, and am not sure if it's due to the mix of flours or my shaping--I'm always a bit concerned that I don't get the ball formed tight enough

Various kinds of quarantine breads

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Gyro sandwich on Ligurian focaccia

 

There has been a whole lot of therapeutic baking and therapeutic bread consumption during this quarantine.  Here are a couple of them...

 

 Pepperoni, artichoke, roasted red pepper, and olive pizza

 

 Challah topped with poppy seeds

 

Troubleshooting starter - hooch and not rising

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Hi everyone, 

I need some help with my starter. I started it on the 29/04 so it's only a few days old. It is my first ever try, I didn't have distilled water and I'm not even sure if the flour I'm using is unbleached. I used the recommended mixture by Joshua Weissman on YouTube for the first mix and a few of the first feedings, this was:

Day 1: 100g wholemeal flour (I didn't have rye) and 150g lukewarm water

I then fed it every 24hrs 

Baking in the Plague

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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.

Purple Sweet Potato Pecan Einkorn Sourdough No. 2

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I baked this bread a second time and adjusted what I was doing based on some comments and suggestions I received here and elsewhere.  Because the sweet potato should already be adding sugars to the dough I skipped the diastatic malt.  I also did bulk fermentation at a slightly lower temperature because I thought the last bake could have been a bit overproofed.  I also baked the bread differently based on an idea that Kirsten of FullProofBaking posted.  On the lowest rack I placed a roasting pan with rack and then baked the bread in my Dutch oven on this rack.

100% Whole Wheat Kamut with Raisin Yeast Water

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This is my first venture into baking with Kamut in a while. In the past, I have found this flour challenging, as the gluten needs a lot of time to hydrate, and once hydrated it's a bit weak and very extensible. I adapted this recipe from AnnieT's Semolina Bread recipe here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20044/semolina-bread#comment-138273

I am delighted with this bread: it has a very thin, very crisp, delicate crust, a moist, tender interior, and a nice clean gentle wheat flavor.

Today’s red fife loaf (2)

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WW flour 900 gr

water 700 gr

levain 150 gr

salt 18 gr

2 hr salt soak ( flour, water, salt) 

5 hr bulk fermented 

1.5 hr proof after shaping into 2 batards

baked at 450F for 35 min

one loaf cut right away. That’s why the crumb is wet in picture. 

malty-wheaty flavor. Soft texture. Crust is crispy 

The accidental miche

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I'm baking away from home with different flours, but I decided to just try and make something using 60% whole grains (a hodgepodge mix of rye, white whole wheat, and einkorn). I used 1000g of flour total and about 85% hydration, adding turmeric and sautéed onions. I made one loaf on the slightly smaller side and then the other loaf ended up weighing 1.3kg!! I didn't have a lame, or a sharp knife, so I tried to let the loaves open on their own. The smaller one opened nicely, but the "miche" rose but didn't crack. I think I overproofed these.