Hi, I'm Joe, from North Central Ohio, USA. Last summer I built an oven in my backyard out of clay, sand and straw, mostly for pizza but I also wanted to bake bread. I tried to make my own SD starter from scratch and failed twice, finally got it going on the 3rd try (Rye flour was my savior!).
Anyway, this past weekend was my first bake day with my starter (8 days old). I have 2 starters at 100% hydration, one is ALL Rye flour and the other was begun with 25% Rye and after 5 days converted to all unbleached AP flour. With each starter used the following ingredients:
200 g starter
400 g water
600 g unbleached AP
20 g sea salt
I mixed the flour and water and autolysed for 2 hours (room temp was near 70 F the whole time), then combined the starter and mixed - worked (folded?) in the bowl at 30 min - 30 min - 1 hour and then left, covered 4 hours. Shaped and proofed for 60-90 minutes, slashed and placed in the clay oven at 500-550 F for 25 minutes.
The result:
Upon tasting them, my daughter (bread lover like her dad) says, "Dad, there is no taste." My wife says, "Something is missing. Did you put salt in?"
I forgot to add the salt. In my excitement and anticipation, it got left out. Other than that (step 1 for improvement next week!) what suggestions do you have for me, based on the photos? The texture of the bread seemed quite nice, though the crust was a bit too hard (I wet mopped the oven floor just prior to placing the loaves in the oven, and use a wet cloth over the inside of the door while baking). Toast and paninis were both a hit despite the lack of salt.
Question for the experienced bakers - how much flavor will the inclusion of salt provide? Is the tastlessness completely due to no salt or are there other items that could likely improve the flavor profile?
THANKS so much for this site - I could not have pulled any of this off without the advice I read here all 8 days developing my starter. And, thanks in advance for any comments and suggestions!!
Joe
DEAD and they are right. Your bread looks great otherwise. The crust will soften in the summer humid air and certainly if wrapped in plastic once it cools and sliced the next day when SD is at its best flavor. You can also brush the crust with water as it comes out of the oven and that will soften the crust too. It looks pretty good inside and out.
It is tough to beat the 1:2:3 recipe but for even better white bread you can move on to David Snyder's San Joaquin or even his SFSD with extra whole grains. Then there are the fruits, nuts, seeds, more whole grains, rye breads, multigrain and ancient grain breads. You have 1 down and only 10,000 more to go!
Happy SD baking
I appreciate your response very much. I guess, at this level, it's a positive to have done this, since I will be able to see the difference for myself. I'm planning to duplicate the process and recipe this week to see what difference the salt addition will make. I would never have left the salt out on purpose, so hopefully it will be a good "learning mistake".
is bland. If you still have part of the loaf, keep it until you make the same recipe again and see for yourself. Freeze it if it's going to be more than a couple of days.
Looks great, too bad it didn't live up to its look.
I always measure out my salt into a little tiny cup and put it on top of the silicone lid I put on my dough as it autolyses. I know that I would forget to add the salt if I didn't. I have some recipes that call for making a small depression in the dough before it autolyses, putting the salt in it and wetting it with a teaspoon of water.
Your loaf and crumb look beautiful, absolutely. I don't know how you got the top design--I have been baking for about 4-5 years now and can never get the tops to look like that.
I have made an Italian loaf without salt and got the same exact as your feedback. It is tasteless and awful. Even 2 tsp or so--doesn't seem like much, but it makes a huge difference. (Also tempers the yeast which is helpful)