No suggestions. But thanks for posting. I’m going to try this for our weekly loaf. I’ve been doing a 3-1 wheat to bread and regular couple hours proofing.
The “5-Minutes-Day-Bread” authors have a blog where a number of their recipes are a good starting point - e.g. I like their English Granary bread.
If you like working with different whole wheats than their other book is also helpful.
1 Like
Curious - why is french made sourdough not noticeably sour whereas american sourdough is very sour?
1 Like
I believe it has to do with three elements; the first has to do with how fermented the starter (levain in French) is. If it is fed less often it develops a sharper taste.
The second is the percentage of starter in the final dough mixture. Most breads have a mixture of both starter and yeast. Some American breads, say San Francisco sourdough, have a much higher percentage of starter - sometimes even 100%.
The third is the type of wild yeast that created the starter in the first place.
2 Likes
There’s a certain expectation too that leads bakers to do things like add vinegar to make the bread more sour.
2 Likes
What mixture do you use? The recipes I’ve used only use one or the other type.
I’d like to use a combo b/c my understanding is that commercial yeast has good consistency for a rapid rise while a starter allows for the long rise needed for flavor development.
1 Like
I use several from Ken Forkish’s book, “Flour Water Salt Yeast”. There is a section entitled “Hybrid Levain Doughs” that produces some spectacular breads. Also rye breads are almost always a combination of leavenings.
Edited to add that I almost never use a rapid rise with commercial yeast - only when I want a puffy bread like Japanese Milk Bread - or New England hot dog buns. My sweet French bread is at least an overnight rise if not longer - as are my pizza doughs.
Me thinks the version here is too sour
1 Like
1 Like
In my experience, most American sourdough breads are not very sour. The Acme levain I buy all the time is significantly less sour than the Poilâne that inspired it.
The small percentage of American sourdough that’s labeled sourdough is often extra-sour to meet the expectations of consumers, which grew out of the popularity of San Francisco sourdough, which in its heyday of artisanal competition was typically assertively sour. These days, the only place I know to get old-school SF sourdough like that is what Boudin makes for Tadich Grill and Sam’s Grill.
2 Likes
An artisanal boule! I want it to have wonderful expansion at the scoring, and crispy crust that stay crispy for at least a few yrs, and a chewy and open and airy crumb. Something like Acme bread in SF (which I only had a Zuni Cafe). I’m not TOO far off right now, but the consistency is lacking. And I have difficulty troubleshooting (even after reading Breadmaking 101: How to Troubleshoot Bad Bread). My not-great loaves seem to have qualities of overproofing and underproofing in the same loaf!
My most consistent prob is that the crust goes soft a few hrs after it comes out from the oven. And the crumb tends to be a bit wet, even after cooling for a few hrs. I notice that my loaves tend to be a better job “setting up” if I left it cool overnight b/f cutting into it.
Will look at the book. Thanks for the rec!
Agree w/ what @robert wrote. Stuff marketed as sourdough is esp sour b/c people want something like an SF SOURDOUGH loaf. I imagine a boule at any of the good bakeries here will be far less sour. I think Nancy Silverton herself has said that an overly sour bread can detract from the food w/ which it’s served.
3 Likes
Do you temp your bread before you pull them? I only ask because it seems like you are having doneness issues.
Crust is a bit of an older book these days but i think it explains the basics better than most. Imo it will help you even with other recipes/bread fórmulas.
Here’s some bread glamor shots 
3 Likes
Julia Child suggests leaving the loaf in the oven with the heat turned off after it has finished baking so the steam contained in the loaf doesn’t soften the crust. She has you turn off the heat, prop the oven open and let it cool naturally. Have had good results with this.
4 Likes
I feel like you’ve answered this question somewhere before but how are you storing your baguettes? I wish I could buy a 10 pack of demi baguette sleeves lol
1 Like
Anything I don’t use or give away on baking day I freeze, then vacuum seal. There are different approaches to thawing, but I have had the best results with heating the frozen baguette at 300 for around seven minutes (time depends on thickness - mine tend to be pretty thin). Let cool to room temp and it is almost as good as baking day - it is never as good as baking day - but its close.
You can freeze unbaked bread but my experience is freezing destroys too much of the gluten.
At any rate I usually give away a lot of the bread to my neighbors on baking day (I have great neighbors).
2 Likes
Yes, at least more recently. It’s usually around 210 deg. I will say that it’s been a long time since I had one that was significantly wet (it’s now more just a little more moist than I’d like).
Oh, that’s quite an interesting idea! Will have to try that.
1 Like
Amazon has a 24 pack of regular baguette sleeves:
https://www.amazon.com/Baguette-Packing-Breathable-Window-Stickers/dp/B08D7SPDGB/ref=sr_1_6
For storage, is paper better than cloth?
No cloth is very good. I think Gjusta used to sell a nice cloth bread bag
1 Like
Interesting substack from a former Cook’s Illustrated baker:
I’ve only skimmed (except for the linked Armenian Easter Bread entry) but the writer seems typically thorough like others that come out of the America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated ranks.
1 Like