Hydration Fun- Plus Reinhart San Francisco Sourdough

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I don't have pictures of everything- but I've been baking (a lot) and wanted to do a side by side comparison of Reinhart's Crust and Crumb San Francisco sourdough versus King Arthur Flour's no knead sourdough. I last made both at different times and with different skill levels. Time for a show down on even playing ground.

The contenders: Reinhart Crust & Crumb San Francisco Sourdough

                               KAF No Knead Sourdough Variation https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-sourdough-bread-recipe

1. Baked C&C sourdough as listed. Hydration 54.5% when using 100% Hydration starter.

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3 loaves based on KAF no knead sourdough but altered from the original 71.34% hydration.

2. 227 g 100% hydration starter, 397 g water, 537 g bread flour, 18 g salt, 2 tsp non-diastatic malt. Overall hydration- 79%.

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3. 227 g 100% hydration starter, 397 g water, 453.5 g bread flour, 18 g salt, 2 tsp. Non-diastatic malt. 90% hydration.

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4. Same as 2 except used stand mixer on 2 speed for 8 minutes.

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Day 1- All preferred 1 & 2 for flavor and texture. Loaf 2 had much better oven spring and appeared to have a stronger flavour. 3 and 4 had a wetter crumb but still acceptable. Flavor not much at all. The kneaded version had a slightly better crumb with more open, even holes.

Day 2- Reinhart's loaf#1 had far far superior flavor to 2. All others just tasted like white bread after that. Would still like to improve oven spring/texture.

Next steps: 1. PR with folds added. 2. PR with higher hydration perhaps a firmer initial build and counterset with less flour later to build flavor? 3. Try with a small addition of a stronger grain in starter only. 4. Redo the 90% high hydration, kneaded loaf and bake at a lower temperature for longer to dry out the crumb.

I also tried the freezer method for scoring the 90% Hydration dough on one loaf. Superior result. Created a tight skin to cut versus the other 90% which was pretty much goo. Distinct oven spring. Wrap loaf well before turning out from brotform. Freeze for 15 minutes. Turn out, score and bake.