Another success story . Even more laissez faire than the last ones. I have been gone 6 weeks . I kneaded enough flour into my stored starter to make a very stiff ball. Put it in a glass jar in the fridge and waved bye bye.
I took it out yesterday and covered with filtered water til it softened. Beat it with a table knife blade til blended. Placed for a few hours in the electric heating pad fermenter beside the 2 qts of yogurt I was making. Removed it took out 80g and added 80g flour. Mixed and placed back in the high tech fermenter 😊.
Overnight it tripled. I removed 113g and added the rest back to the liquidy stuff and mixed and stored.
Our screened porch needed a huge several hour de-pollenization. I mixed everything for the Pullman multi grain and left it 1 hr. to hydrate. Cleaned some. In the bowl folds done covered left 1 hr. Cleaned more. In the bowl folds again 3rd time covered left 1 hr.
Dumped out on very wet counter did three watery laminations . Rolled into a long tube and placed in buttered 13” Pullman. ( used 2 tsp soft butter including lid) . Rose 4 hrs in high tech heating pad fermenter. Set on med/high.
200 g Arrowhead Mills
100g semolina ( Indian market version)
150g milled Spelt ( Barton Springs)
150g milled Stardust( Barton Springs)
100g milled Danko Rye ( Barton Springs)
450 g H2O + enough to wet counter x 3 for laminations approx 50 g
40g each Homemade Yogurt, EVOO, AZ Mesquite Honey
14 g Kosher salt
113 g active levain ( Arrowohead Mills)
375 preheat - 30 min lid on / 20 min lid off
Couldn’t be happier. The fragrance is incredible. Will cut later tonight and post a crumb photo.Everything perfect crumb-wise. Crispy crust full grain flavor extremely tender able to slice paper thin while still warm. 1400 g approx is the sweet spot for 13” Pullman with milled grains.
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Welcome back and wow! What a way to start back up.
I just got one of my starters up and running after almost 5 weeks off. I had refreshed it into a thickish paste but not a stiff ball. I only let it ferment a few hours before putting it to bed in the fridge. Yesterday I retrieved it and after two refreshments, a day later it was ready for use after a final refresh. so far so good.
TomP
It was definitely a great return . I was surprised at how lively the starter was. I’ve left a starter for months at a time in the past but this is the first time I’ve taken the whole ball ( size of a golf ball) and soaked it then used part of that slurry to rejuvenate. Will remember to do it next time as well. Had a great trip … really glad to be home!
I hope you had an amazing trip. Hopefully this weather will start feeling like spring. I’ve had enough of the 40 degree rainy days 😫. Your first bake back looks perfect. Today we’re going to tackle the clutter in our baking/cooking pantry room and hopefully I’ll find my M.I.A. Pullman pan so I can join in the fun 😁.
Best regards.
Ian
Great trip but “ there’s no place like home”! We aren’t desert folks so it was interesting but not going to repeat. We got dust storms and flooded roads on the way back East all along I 40. Quite an exhausting 4 1/2 day drive.
This combo of flours was perfect and I can’t ever get over how yummy the “ bit of butter” makes this crust taste. I’m sure more versions are in the future.
4 1/2 days AZ -> VA? Ow ow ow. I did VA -> NM in 4 days twice, never again. While we were going twice a year we took 6 days. Then we could get off the Interstates and find interesting places without getting so wiped out.
We are used to long road trips. We took 4 days to drive from Lexington to Cape Breton in August 2024. We like to take our bikes and stop to ride greenways etc in each town after a short day of driving. It worked perfectly in August and again on the way out this trip. Unfortunately with the changed route on the way back and the horrible weather nothing worked out well this return trip.
I also picked up a terrible respiratory event after the dust storm! Today is the first day I’ve been more or less well. We got home on the 5th. I’m never ever ill so this was an unexpected unwelcome experience.
We won’t be going back, it was interesting and beautiful and we had fun but the relentless sun and wind and so dry just isn’t our thing. With my husband’s vision deficit and his Albino skin coloring he’s not cut out for the desert!
How are your hands and wrists doing? I hope laying off working dough has helped.
The extreme amount of garden/ yard work has managed to pretty much put me back where I was when I left. I have huge gardens with perennials that need cutting back. I’m usually here in March and we travel in April but this year we changed up everything so the cutting back didn’t happen til we got back. The new growth had already started with a vengeance so it’s been a real challenge to get everything tamed. I have one more bed to weed and cut back then countless numbers of wheelbarrow loads of mulch. I need to get out the Velcro braces! I forgot to put them on. 😳 thank you for asking 🙏
My back has been a mess and I haven’t even started the spring cleanup. Usually I do a good fall cleanup but that didn’t happen either. It sucks getting old sometimes 😉
No back or knees or any other parts except my memory are in peril. I’ve been lifting free weights since 1982 so I attribute that to my good luck . If I hadn’t slipped on a steep hillside with camping equipment 3 yrs ago my hands would be fine. I should have given them time to heal but I was stubborn. Ah well. I finished everything today and the city brought a truck to get the huge pile of debris. Now all I have to do is wheelbarrow from my neighbors mulch pile through two yards to my yard . It usually takes 90 round trips! Yikes.
My husband just made us grilled ham and cheddar sandwiches on the Pullman loaf. Oh my that restored me lol.
I’ll never leave Fall cleanup til April again ! I’ll remind you also next Fall!
Glad to hear you've still got it and the method is getting even easier.
Good blend of flours too, I love the yellow colour of the semolina and must have had a good flavour with the rye and trinity.
-Jon
It is a great blend. I think the milling of the grains definitely makes a huge difference. I’m so glad I invested in the Mock Mill years ago.
I forgot to do a Yudane this bake so will add that into the mix next time.
What a wonderful result with your simple low stress method Caroline. I’m sure this tasted fantastic.
Benny
I hope you had a fantastic trip ! Always wonderful to be back home though.
The buttery goodness from just 2 tsp of butter on the pan is truly amazing. Looking forward to trying lots more flour combos.
I’ve been working hours and hours in my garden and the hands/ wrists are not happy. This method of bread dough development is definitely permanent.
Beautiful loaf. I love how resilient sourdough starter is. Sometimes I go weeks without touching it, and it builds right back up no problem.
Yes it is resilient. I’ve thought it was lost to mold in the past and broke off a clean , more or less, piece and it’s still healthy. I hope you will try the formula. 🙏
David
I hope you are well and baking. I’m glad to be home. It’s a tough time of year for us so being “ in place” is a balm to the soul. We leave on the 24th for a 5 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat. It’s been too long. 🙏
Hope it goes well and that you don't suffer from back problems as well as hands and wrists!
My wife has constructed an interesting cushion for vipassana but for a 10 day retreat.
-Jon
We have been on many 10 days over the decades. We haven’t been since Oct 2020 after our son died. We are over due. This is a new to us place in WV so we shall see how it goes. The place we went to retreats in Missouri is now run by a group that we aren’t interested in being part of. It was such a wonderful place but our monk passed away and those that took over are on a different path. What kind of cushion does your wife use?
This is what her cushion looks like:
Its got a higher bigger pillow in there that you sit on and two smaller cylindrical pillows for your legs and knees that are loosely attached to that. And it all goes loosely into that cover. So kind of like a throne, in my husbandly understanding of it, and since she's currently off meditating with that cushion, can't provide any more "expert" detail! She did want to know before she left though if your vipassana had anything to do with Goenka?
-Jon
New found inspiration for pan loaves that is. Thanks Caroline,I may never reach your level of self actualization no matter how much more I go fishing but it has made my pan loaves enlightened!
I like the bulk fermentation in the pan for the wild natural unmolested crumb structure that is possible. I don’t have a lid so the top of the loaf was looking a little untidy from dumping the dough into to the pan. I have found that by doing the last coil fold in the bowl and lifting it into the pan it can make a more domed top.
from this to somewhat shaped
A full bake is required to reduce the watery taste from all the liquids and it’s a good excuse to melt more butter on the top.
Enjoy you trip and Happy baking
Don
Oh, hey, you're getting that crumb too! Good show!
TomP
I found the baked starter bread you posted that resembles this crumb like the matrix in a fully fermented starter. Kind of humbling to think that all the extra handling involved in the usual shaping methods leave there mark on the finished product.
Laissez faire loaf
Don
That bread looks delicious Don! Can only imagine it tastes great too with the trinity in there.
Is it part of the laissez faire method to not shape it for the loaf pan?
-Jon
just for the hell of it;) I was really going for a more open crumb so the dairy was replaced with more water. The flavor was mild by itself but it’s a good soft sandwich bread that melts in your mouth with a really nice crust. I think next time I’ll up the % of spelt.
The hands off does mean no shaping since the pan handles that. It is different in that there is no dense dough around pan that can happen with degassing a shaped pan loaf. There is also no legible spiral swirl from rolling it up. It’s convenient for me to have a longer process with a beginning and an end with no middle time for misjudging fermentation.
I hope you try your hand at it Don
Many times the dough can be so wet or loose that it can't really be shaped anyway. The method still works well.
The top on with the Pullman. Does make a difference! I guess I’m going to have to do the next bake without the “ girdle” holding in the curves lol!!!
You and Bennie. he hasn’t got a top to his Pullman either. Who knew that unrestricted curves could be so dangerous. 😂😊👍
Things can get wild 🤪so maybe it’s time to unleash the beast! You might get something that looks like a double decker bus. I do like the efficiency and reliability of this method even learning to bake it in a toaster oven.
Now you’ve done it. My husband loves the perfect shape from the Pullman with lid. I’ll have to explain my abandonment of his preferred shape was instigated by a rogue baker ! We shall see. It will be awhile before I bake another loaf the 13” is cut into quarters and 3 are frozen to be slightly thawed and sliced as needed. I’m glad you and some others have found a technique you enjoy. 🙏