Susan's sourdough too

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hullaf on 27 Oct 2008 at 13:19

 Susan's sourdoughSusan's sourdough    

Susan's sourdoughSusan's sourdough    

 

Like 'dmsynder' I baked Susan's sourdough this last week. (And somehow the above date is wrong, it is October 27, 2008.) I have tried it before without very good results but this time it was right! If you don't succeed . . .  The recipe was similar, only 2/3 of the recipe made, with the flour being  50% General Mill's "Best for Bread" and 50% KA all purpose flour (hoping for less chewiness). My starter was my whole wheat version (1:3:4 ratio) refreshed for two times before using. I made the dough as directed though "mixing" and folding was questionable as my dough wasn't loose enough for doing the "french fold"; it was moreso a "stretch and fold".  I felt the dough gluten development was sufficient and only folded for two times. It doubled in 6 hours. I formed it into one boule, put it into a well floured (I thought well floured) banneton and let it proof 1 hour and then into the refrigerator overnight. It then proofed at room temperature for 5 hours. And then when I took it out of the banneton, it stuck! Yee - I tenderly helped it out but it collapsed a bit and I thought, there it goes. But I put it in the oven with lots of (Hamelman type) steam -- it's difficult with my gas oven of course -- but it rose to the occasion wonderfully, the best oven rise I didn't expect! It came out tasting moderate sour.   Anet

Nice job, Anet! Have you discovered the magic of rice flour (mixed 50:50 with AP) for dusting your bannetons? It releases even relatively sticky doughs easily. In any case, your boule certainly overcame its traumatic delivery.
David

Can I make  suggestion? I put my dough into the brotform the morning after it has sat in the fridge. I take the bowl out of the fridge, let the dough sit a couple hours and then shape and put into the brotforms with rice flour. Then proof as you normally would.

I have to try Susan's Sourdough..everyone has such beautiful loaves with her recipe and your's is no exception!

Weekend BakeWeekend Bake

Betty

The 2 loaves on the left are English muffin bread. If you look 2 posts down from this one I put the link to Mike Avery's recipe using starter. You make the best english muffins already, but this recipe sure comes in handy when you have extra starter and don't feel like doing the whole shabang.

Betty

Thanks for all the kind words. I get so pleased when something works and "Susan's Sourdough" was it this time.  David, I'll try the rice flour mix next time. And Betty, the refrigeration and then shaping is an idea for this recipe -- I've just recently tried the 'proof overnight' kind of fermentations. (And by-the-way, your weekend bake looks great, love those slashes. What is the bread on the left?)  Anet

I find when retarding in the fridge that I get some condensation on the dough which
is absorbed by the flour in the brotform and causes it to stick. I only tried retarding overnight in the brotform once to learn that lesson.

That pic is from a year or so ago, but I still make those same breads almost weekly. The loaf on the left is English muffin bread. I've made English muffins, but quite frankly, this is whole lot easier and tastes just as good. I have made it with yeast or you can use up that discarded starter! I think that was the sourdough one..recipe courtesy of Mike Avery from Sourdough Home. The only thing I do differently is sprinkle cornmeal inside the pan after spraying with canola oil spray.

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/sourdoughfasttrack4.html

Betty

Is this the recipe you are all talking about?

 

Susan's Sourdough <--- The Susan in question is Susan from San Diego, yes?

 

(I get confused because there are two Susans from California)

 

-Elizabeth, in Toronto, where it's cold and windy 

I'm easily confused too but I think this recipe is from Susanfnp who also has a website. The one I call Susan's bread is cooked under a stainless steel bowl, for which many thanks go to Susan and her Magic Bowl method, A.
Now I am confused too. But, I'm easy to confuse. This is embarassing! I know I've admired both of them, but which one goes with which recipe? I can't swear I've got that straight at the moment. Maybe I've been making my wife's sourdough. She's also a "Susan from California." 'cept she doesn't bake bread. Now, you want persimon cookies?
David

with the confusion! Both Susans make awesome bread..so I'm not sure either..

Betty

I don't know what Anet made, but I have been making SusanFNP's recipe which is derived from Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough. The way I make it has slightly higher hydration (68 versus 65%) and a French fold technique rather than machine mixing. I also use a 1:3:4 starter rather than a liquid starter. Otherwise, it's Hamelman's recipe.
David

Hellaf,

Very nice job; crumb, crust and scoring.  Susan's recipe is a winner and you certainly made a great looking loaf.

Howard

For the above photos I used (with my own bit of changes - I didn't use the under-the-stainless-steel-bowl method) from 'dmsynder's' recipe which is a pinch different than that of SusanFNP's, which is off the Wild Yeast and is called her Norwich variation, which is a tweak off of Hamelman's Vermont sourdough. Is that all correct? Well, we all do change recipes a bit and tweak them here and there, but this last worked for me and you know, I'll probably change it the next time a bit too! And I will go back to all the originals again too.   Conundrum?   Anet