Sourdough Chronicles

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Do you mind sharing your recipe? :slight_smile:

More experimenting over the past few days. My loaves always have “sloped” shoulders and tend to flatten even during shaping (let alone when I turn the dough out for baking). So I tried lower hydration starter (80%), hydration (70%), and I mixed the hell out of the dough (Rubaud, which is not so easy at the lower hydration).

And b/c one e-book I read said that folds later during bulk do more for structure, I actually didn’t start folding until ~1.5 hrs after I mixed. I was also hoping this would lead to honeycomb crumb. No autolyze.

Dough pre-shaped and shaped wonderfully. Looked great when I turned it out (I’ve never had my dough turn out of the banneton so intact):

I had some issues w/ my bread baker (which resulted in my cracking it b/c of thermal shock from ice cubes, even though I used tin foil to try to insulate the stone). Not sure if that’s why the over spring was not so good. Better than what I normally get, but still some sloped shoulders. Not much bursting at the score. Loaf kind of spread, rather than burst upward (photo makes the scoring seem more prominent than it does in real life).

I thought I was going to get a disappointing crumb, but I was completely surprised!

The “lower” half is the most open crumb I’ve made, even though this is much lower hydration than I normally do. Crumb feels very fluffy and not at all wet (I haven’t tasted b/c it’s for a small dinner tonight).

I have no idea why the crumb of one half of the loaf looks totally diff from the other side. I would like my loaves to have the more open structure seen in lower half (which, curiously, is on the opposite side from the scoring).

I used 100% Central Milling Old World Bread Flour. One very good amateur baker says this flour very thirsty and that he uses 80% hydration to open the crumb. When I use higher hydration w/ this flour and do an autolyze, I have gotten an insanely extensible dough that doesn’t hold a shape.

Bread baking is so weird (which is why I would never make this is a micro-business. Mad respect to the folks who can get a consistent product).

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80% hydration with OWBF sounds insane! They must have mad skills I stick with 68% above 70 it becomes much harder to handle for me.

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Yeah, I don’t get it myself. I don’t think there’s a ton of videos of him working doughs (but he has a lot of other very helpful videos comparing diff flours and has downloadable charts about dough temp vs. desired rise vs. expected time for bulk ferment), so I can’t tell how good his dough handling is. :wink: But I think he also showed one loaf (can’t remember the flour) where he barely did any folding at all and let it bulk overnight.

Here’s his IG w/ the 80% hydration. Relatively closed crumb is not so surprising, but he gets tremendous height!!! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6GoX7rLE3r/

He had mentioned in another video that he sometimes mixes in CM Mountain Flour (high protein) w/ some his doughs. Not sure if he did that above, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen videos of his w/ similar results where he says he is using 100% Old World.

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When bread flops like that, it’s the starter. Your starter is limp, needs reviving. Try a mix of rye, wheat, and mostly white to give it a boost and feed daily for a week. Keep only 20g of your starter when you add in the high protein flour mixture.

my focaccia recipe comes from this odd site: Easy Sourdough Focaccia Recipe (Perfect For Beginners!)

Jump to the bottom for the measurements, I find it to be perfect every time. What I do differently though, is I mix only the starter, honey, and water first - then add the flour. I let that rest for about an hour. Then I add the salt with a little water. I do 2 or 3 coil folds about 45 minutes apart then cover with a wet towel and let it sit on the counter, overnight. In the morning, I’ll transfer it to the 9 x 13 pan just as she says, but I let it sit for three hours (covered) before baking. I always use Maldon salt, rosemary, a very good olive oil on top – – sometimes chili flakes sometimes some Parmesan…

Having said that, I used to follow that method from Bostongirlbakes and only do it that way (mix it all and leave it for the night), and it was great. You’ll fool around with it and see what works.

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Do you rough percentages for rye, wheat, and white, and, for the “final” starter, are you adding only bread flour (I normally use a mix of wheat and white for my “final” starter)?

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No bread flour, that will make a very thirsty starter and it’s overkill. I just eyeball mix and only do it when the starter is in need of a boost - then I’ll feed that combo every 4th time or so. On baking day, I use only AP for feeding.

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Really??? What about AP do you feel works better for the final starter?

Same

Note to self: when it is nearly 80 deg outside, one does not need to use 85 deg water to bring their dough temp up. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yesterday’s loaf was TOTALLY overproofed and pretty flat. Thankfully, the taste and texture is actually pretty decent. I’m glad that I’ve come far enough that even overproofed is still totally useable for my own purposes (had originally baked it for partner to take to his friends in an acting group).

It’s also the first time in awhile I hadn’t temp’d my dough. Whoops.

I’m really liking the pizza steel I’m using (World Market, but I think you can something similar anywhere). The terracotta “cover” I use doesn’t seem to hold much heat, and I’m scared of using it w/ ice cubes (to increase steam). I’ve read on-line about using a stainless steel “1/2” hotel pan (6" tall) as a cover. I think I will try that next.

I also think this video about scoring is excellent: