Sourdough loaf

I was not at all sure what to call this loaf (besides a bit overproofed) because I don’t really know what’s in it.

Well, I know there’s some rye starter, whole wheat flour, unbleached white bread flour, water and salt. That’s it. This was another “let’s just eye ball it” loaf.

To be honest, I’m much happier with how this one turned out than my last try at a “winging it loaf”. I still over proofed it a bit, but not nearly as much as the last one. I also managed to get the consistency of the dough to be a lot less wet and impossible (for me) to handle.

I did a one stage levain build using my NMNF rye starter. I used just whole wheat flour for the levain build. It was a very liquid levain (I poured too much water).

Next morning, I mixing some more whole wheat flour with white flour and water and left to autolyse. I was careful to make the autolyse a bit stiffer than normal just because I was aware of how liquid the levain was. I let that sit for about 2 hours.

I mixed all the levain, with the rest of the dough and added salt. Based on some advice I got last time, I put the salt in the palm of my hand until it looked like how much I usually put in my loaves, then I put a bit extra because it looked like I had a bit more dough.

I stretched and folded for a while. I gave the dough one fold about an hour into the bulk fermentation. The total bulk fermentation was only about 3 hours after which I shaped and put the loaf into the fridge. Things were happening so quickly!  

I peeked at the dough a couple of hours later and it was looking ready to bake, but I didn’t have time so I had to leave it in the fridge overnight.

The dough flatten out a little when I scored it, and it only barely recovered in the oven.

If I were to guess, I’d say there’s maybe 40 – 45% whole wheat, 60 – 65% white flour and 70%ish hydration. I think the salt is about right (2%). No idea how much prefermented flour is in here, but based on how quickly the bulk fermentation happened, I’d say a lot. 

This one tastes great, it has a nice sour tang to it. The crumb is really soft and fluffy, less chewy than usual, but that's okay. 

Happy baking!