The story so far:
One day, maybe two years ago, I decided I would bake a loaf of bread. How hard could it be? Well, that first loaf was a pretty good indication of how difficult bread can be.
Fast forward a couple of years and I've made substantial improvements. After reading extensively (some bread baking books and even quite a few threads here on this forum) and trying a bazillion variations and techniques, I now have a pretty good handle on how to make a decent loaf. Some of them are even pretty! Along the way I cultured my own sourdough starter as well, and have now baked probably fifty or so loaves with it.
I'm here today because I still think my loaves can be improved upon. Specifically, flavor. My early loaves were made with the no-knead technique, and they were poorly risen, under proofed, over moist and a bit squishy. But they were delicious in ways that my current loaves just aren't, well risen though they may be.
My current approach is a pastiche of techniques I've cherry-picked from various places. And it produces consistently well-risen loaves (better than the one in the attached picture). My next task will be to marry the flavor of my early loaves with the well-risen form of my current loaves.
How? Don't know yet. But I have some ideas, and I think it will involve some very long rise and proof times.
I think I'm going to need some more flour.
That loaf of bread is absolutely gorgeous! I love the scoring!
They (specifically Malcolm Gladwell) that it takes about 10,000 hours to become highly proficient at something. That being, only so long as you have a highly talented sounding board against which you can bounce ideas, receive feedback, try again, repeat.. I think in bread terms that equates to 100,000 grams of flour (or should it be 1,000,000 grams?), a lot of posts on the fresh loaf, and willing taste testers nearby. Enjoy the journey and above all - bake happy! breat1965!
Thanks, all! I can't remember for sure, but I think I picked up the spiral design from a lovely photo here on TFL somewhere. But I could be misremembering.
Gosh, 1 million grams? I better get busy.
It isn't too uncommon to get the loaf looking good and lose the flavor along the way. It happened to me too. Good luck finding out why and fixing it. It took me awhile but now no worries.
Well done, welcome and happy baking
dabrownman, if you don't mind, could you share what it was that went wrong for you? There are so many variables to account for, but I'm always interested in hearing how others have approached challenges like this.
my starter and levains on the counter feeding them white flour. I didn't realize this is what you do if you wantt he least sour and flavlavorful SD possibe - most people don not like sout bread and todays baers bake bread that reflect that. So I started doing the things that make for a mor sour and flavorful bread oinsted.
The most important thing for me in making sour is using whole grains. The bran acts as sort of buffer allowing the LAB to continue to reproduce and make more acid at lower pH's than they normally could or would.
The 2nd most important thing is high temperatures, 90-92 F for counter work like starter and levain builds, gluten development and final proofing. Number 3 is cold temperatures for a ver, veryy long time for starters - weeks, as long as possible for levains 2-3 days and bulk ferments - 24 hours.
Number 4 is hydration. Less hydration with low temperatures promoted acetic acid production over longer times. BUt LAB loive high hydration so when you get to levains and dough you want a higher hydration.
A SD culture can have 10 to 1 LAB to yeast ratio - less sour or 100 to 1 LAB to yeast ratios - sour. The above promotes LAB reproduction rates while restricting yeast reproduction rates which leads to a starter, levain and dough that has higher LAB to yeast ratios which means each can produce more acid than those that have less LAB in them.
Temperature and hydration also can promote the two kinds of acid that LAB produce, Lactic acid - the normal acid that provides sour and acetic acid the 'tang' in SD. A balance in both is what makes for good SD bread in my book as does a more sour taste in general.
But this is completely personal and most people by far prefer bread that is not sour or less sour when sourdough is in the mix. Luckily, we know the science well enough today to make what ever kind of sourdough bread we personally like just by manipulating all of the above at the right time, for the right length of time. But that is not all.
It is just science and the kind of wee beasties you have in your culture. Some wee beasties can produce as much CO2 as yeast and some can be prompted to produce CO2 and ethanol and little acid just like yeast do. Some produce more acid than others some don't produce much acetic acid and others a lot of it. So, you can change your sour and tang profile by using a different culture, made with flours from a different place, without changing anything else in the method.
Here is how I do starters and levains
No Muss No Fuss Starter
Happy Sour baking
Happy sour baking
This loaf looks amazing..... This is what I'm attempting myself bud. I tried no kneads at the beginning I wasn't that happy about the rise. But tried my first SD loaf and seem to got it alright but will try more