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This weekend, I felt my wild starter culture had enough strength, so I baked my first loaf of sourdough (82% artisan bread flour, 12% whole wheat, 5% rye). Nothing could wipe the grin off my face when I took the lid off the dutch oven saw that the flabby, ugly lump of dough I threw in at the beginning actually looked and smelled like something resembling bread! I was following the sourdough starter instructions and beginner's sourdough recipe from The Perfect Loaf. I had quite a few missteps and took notes on all of them, so hopefully my next loaf this weekend turns out a little better.
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# ¿ Dec 5, 2017 20:39 |
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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 00:54 |
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Stringent posted:That's a nice loaf, especially for a first try. Thanks, I was over the moon with how it turned out, trust me! I think I got just enough right to see it through, and apparently none of the mistakes I made were deal breakers. The crust was crunchy and the crumb was soft and a little chewy, but seemed reasonably open with only a few large (quarter-sized) pockets. I assume they were due to the difficulty I had shaping the boule: I didn't use enough flour on the block OR the dough. The loaf disappeared fast and ended up really tasty with just a hint of sourness. I can appreciate why recipes are for two loaves! I opted to keep developing my 2-week old starter culture with twice daily feedings, rather than crash it in the fridge for most of the week and am excited for the prospect of another bake this weekend.
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# ¿ Dec 6, 2017 16:36 |
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Cymbal Monkey posted:So I realised recently that I've never actually seen anyone else use this trick ... I find I can get substantially improved crust by wetting down the whole loaf before I put it in. I just whack it under the tap an throw it on the oven rack and the crust comes out beautifully. I do this and it also works great to revive the crust of stale loaves; just give it a quick run under the tap. It's kinda like spritzing water on the dough before it goes into the oven to encourage bubbly, crackly crust. Here is my 3rd attempt at more sourdough loaves from the weekend before last: The boule ended up with a golfball-sized void near the top, and the crumb in both was a little on the dense side. This was a problem with all my previous loaves. I'm not convinced I'm doing everything in my power during shaping to prevent this, but I've also read that it can be due to an immature starter. My starter is only a couple months old but it wasn't until this past week that I started getting a really good rise out of it. Previously it was struggling to get to 2x volume in a 12 hour period, but now it's easily exceeding 3x volume inside of 8 hours.
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# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 18:19 |
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Zenithe posted:It does now, and after doing some more reading I think maybe it was a bad week to make it, we've had three days around 38C. After a day last week where I completely neglected my starter for 24 hours it smelled heavily like acetone. Each feeding for days afterward, the smell would tend toward acetone but I was able to slowly "breed it out" with regular feedings. It seems like any time you let things slide like this, it throws off the balance of your population and it takes some time to get it back to normal.
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# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 17:20 |
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Submarine Sandpaper posted:looks like it was broiled. rip top heating elements. Ah, thanks for the clarification. I've seen mine form a little liquid on top when I store it in the fridge for a couple weeks, but I've never experienced anything like that! I ferment a number of foods and beverages and have never had any of my cultures, wild or otherwise, go bad in any way [knocks on wood]. In breadmaking news, I tried a high hydration bread this weekend and while it was absolutely delicious, I had my worst rise yet. The recipe was 92% malted bread flour and 8% whole wheat with 85% hydration. Since I'm used to recipes around 75% hydration, I cut back the water and ended up around 82%. It was still hell to work with and especially to form the loaves. I gave the levain longer to ferment this time; from the usual 6 hours (where it's still rising) to 12 (where it was just starting to fall). After a 16 hour proof at 38 degrees, the loaves hadn't risen much at all, but they usually don't and have good oven spring anyway. Not this time!
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# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 16:53 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:Sorry for the scrub question, but what do you do with dough accidentally made with yeast that is basically dread? I like to compost it since I chuck quite a bit of otherwise delicious and nutritious sourdough starter. It's got what plants crave.
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# ¿ Jan 25, 2018 18:32 |
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pantsfree posted:I’m new to this and I’m having a lot of trouble getting any meaningful oven spring with my loaves. I’m making tasty bread, but the loaves are much flatter and have spread more than they should. I've made this recipe 3 times and each time I got great oven spring (check the last couple pages, I posted pics). Did you use regular white bread flour as opposed to the artisan (sprouted grain) bread flour the recipe calls for? I'm also new to breadmaking, so I don't know how/if this substitution would affect the final product, or what I may have done right. What are you baking the loaves in? All I know is that I'm terrible at shaping and it didn't seem to matter in my case. As soon as I tried one of his higher hydration (85%) recipes it all went to hell and I had terrible oven spring, but delicious bread. I really whiffed shaping that time, though.
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# ¿ Feb 5, 2018 17:20 |
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Thanks pantsfree for the reminder that it's been four or five weeks since I've fed my starter. The last time I had neglected my starter for about as long, I spent a week letting it build strength up, then baked two of my best loaves yet. This page needs more pictures; apologies for the converging lines, I was in a hurry since I had company over: Both loaves were batard and I got the chance to use the rattan proofing basket my wife got me for my birthday. The other loaf was proofed in an oval-shaped bowl lined with a kitchen towel. After using both proofing vessels side by side, I really prefer the basket; the dough seemed to have more moisture drawn out and had a superior crust. In case anyone is curious, this is the same ~75% hydration recipe I've been grinding for experience with ~82% bob's artisan bread flour, 12% whole wheat, 6% dark rye.
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# ¿ May 31, 2018 15:05 |
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Thanks for the critique. That was definitely the kitchen towel loaf in the cross-section. I realized when I posted that I never took a cross section of the basket loaf. I recall scoring those loaves deeper than normal but at a shallower angle (practically flat). I'm also just bad at shaping and maybe part of that it's because I'm cutting my teeth on a high hydration recipe and I need to play with the moisture or try an easier-to-handle one. The dough almost always sticks like crazy on my wood cutting board. At any rate I was happy to see a more open crumb than I usually do and the crust was delicious as usual. What causes the transverse "tears" on the crust of the overhead (basket proofed) loaf? I gather that it didn't have enough room to expand at some critical point, but is there a usual suspect?
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# ¿ May 31, 2018 21:47 |
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Does anyone else have problems with the bottom crust getting a little overdone? I've used a dutch oven but started using a combo cooker exclusively with the same result, consistently. I bake with the rack in the dead center of the oven and wonder if raising the rack a little or putting a cookie sheet on a separate rack immediately below will help. I can't test a fix now because I'm nursing my starter back to health after forgetting it in the fridge for some 6 - 8 weeks, then taking it out to warm up and feed, only to forget it for another couple days on the counter Edit: and speaking of the Lodge combo cooker, they're on sale at Amazon for $27. Average is about $35. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jun 22, 2018 |
# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 18:24 |
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I don’t know about you but this weekend I came across a recipe for European sourdough doughnuts and now I can’t get it out of my head. My wife, a Hungarian native, still remembers having these as a child and has demanded a batch.
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# ¿ Nov 5, 2018 20:02 |
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3 weeks in the fridge is no sweat for a sourdough starter and should only take a couple days of regular feeding to recover. I still feel bad about forgetting mine for something like 6 weeks one time. The first feeding took over 24 hours to see activity, but it quickly recovered after few more days. What breadmaking stuff did you guys get for the holidays? My SIL got me Tartine Bread and my wife got me a couche, a long banneton for French bread, another for batard loaves, and a Brod & Taylor proofing box.
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# ¿ Dec 27, 2018 18:47 |
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Tekopo posted:First experiments with baking bread. What do you bake in? I’ve used a Dutch oven and now a Lodge combo cooker and seem to always get results similar (but not quite) to a steam oven w/r/t crust. I’ve even tried spritzing the loaf before putting the lid on and it doesn’t seem to make a bit of difference.
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# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 19:38 |
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I seem to remember reading that the slow gluten development that occurs in no-knead sourdough is much easier to digest for people with [varying degrees of] gluten intolerance.
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# ¿ Mar 6, 2019 16:59 |
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Forgive me bread gods for I have sinned. My starter was in the fridge about a month before I decided to get it out to warm up before feeding. And then I forgot it in a neglected corner of the kitchen for two more weeks. The top layer was slimy with dark mold, so I discarded down to the last 16 grams on the bottom of the jar, fed, and put it in my proofing box. It smells heavily like...rotten fruity pebbles, which I'm guessing are esters from the yeast being extremely stressed. I'm a terrible starter mom. Hopefully I can revive it Edit: I have a lot of faith in the resilience of yeast/bacterial colonies. 17 hours after the first feeding, the starter got a decent 2x rise and was falling again. Still smells pretty stinky and a runny consistency. After feeding 2 subsided, funky smell mostly gone and has much more substance. I’m sure it’ll recover after more feedings, but I won’t be baking anything with it for awhile until I’m sure all the yuck is bred out. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 19:32 on May 4, 2019 |
# ¿ May 3, 2019 16:30 |
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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 00:54 |
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Hefty posted:Is my starter okay? You might be tempted by my previous post to take this with a grain of salt, but it’s totally fine if the top dries out a little like that. Just discard the floating crust on the next feeding.
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# ¿ May 6, 2019 17:34 |