Sourdough Starter-ers

Pau Hana Reefer · Jun 7, 2020

Success! Pretty happy with my first ever sourdough loaf! Few things I’m going to work on
1) work the levain into the autolyse a bit more.
2) my cuts on the top need to be a bit deeper
3) going to try out a few techniques to see if I can make the bottom not as hard (I made this one in a crockpot)

Rick.45cal · Jun 7, 2020

Pau Hana Reefer said:
Success! Pretty happy with my first ever sourdough loaf! Few things I’m going to work on
1) work the levain into the autolyse a bit more.
2) my cuts on the top need to be a bit deeper
3) going to try out a few techniques to see if I can make the bottom not as hard (I made this one in a crockpot)

That’s a good looking loaf, nice structure inside!

Rick.45cal · Jun 7, 2020

Some things for everyone to remember who’s starting out on this journey, different flours will result in different appearances/behaviors of the levain so don’t get too hung up on appearance. Whole wheat flours tend to make the levain much less bubbly and airy for example.

Pau Hana Reefer · Jun 7, 2020

Rick.45cal said:
That’s a good looking loaf, nice structure inside!

Rick.45cal said:
Some things for everyone to remember who’s starting out on this journey, different flours will result in different appearances/behaviors of the levain so don’t get too hung up on appearance. Whole wheat flours tend to make the levain much less bubbly and airy for example.

Thanks! And that is some good information to keep in mind. I appreciate all the great tips you've passed along!

NS Mike D · Jun 15, 2020

I rose overnight in the fridge. The texture and flavor was better. I have a method for proofing overnight, I like that since you wake up and bake. Much easier to time it.

Pau Hana Reefer · Jun 15, 2020

NS Mike D said:
I rose overnight in the fridge. The texture and flavor was better. I have a method for proofing overnight, I like that since you wake up and bake. Much easier to time it.

Looks amazing! Were these made with the recipe you shared earlier in this thread?

NS Mike D · Jun 15, 2020

Pau Hana Reefer said:
Looks amazing! Were these made with the recipe you shared earlier in this thread?

mostly. Double the recipe for two loaves. At step 4 after the 20 minute folds I headed out for some night surf fishing so I put the dough in the fridge overnight to finish the rise/ferment. I took it out in the morning and picked up from there. The proof was more like an hour. I did the finger poke test. If the dent stays, it's not ready. If the dent sprinsg back and there is no sign of your finger poke, it's over proofed, but if you poke it, it spings back but there is still a little but of a dent, pop it in the oven.

Also, the loaf on the left was in the Dutch oven while the loaf of the right was on a piping hoyt pizza stone. I poured hot water into a piping hot pan on the bottom of the oven when the bread went in to create steam. That loaf took 10 minutes more to bake. This way I could bake two loaves at once (for some reason a lot of sourdough recipes are for 2 loaves).

Sour dough is supposed to freeze well so I will see.

Lastly I found a great web site tutorial that makes sense of all this and has I think 5 different methods so you can pick the one that fits best in your schedule and it uses the same ratio of flour, stater water and salt so you can mix and match your own flours.

watch this

and this is this checklists

https://d2tqztjruk8gde.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/21115316/5-Sourdough-Bread-Checklists.pdf

The catch is that he sells a $97 online video course to go into more detail of the nuances, but this gave me the confidence to throw my dough into the fridge last night only to find it was it was ready to go in the morning.

I also made the fried dough with fresh rosemary from my kitchen plant this morning with the discard starter for breakfast for my coffee. It was awesome.

NS Mike D · Jun 23, 2020

I used Michael Greenfield's Nine to Five method yesterday where you get your starter ready and autolyse (hydrate) the flour before you leave for work 8AM, leave it alone until 5pm for the stretch and fold and bulk rise. 10pm shape into the proofing baskets and into the fridge overnight to bake in the morning.

I used the baker's ratio: 100/80/20 = 1000g flour, 800g water and 20g salt, but missed where he said that is hard to work so start with 750 -770 g of water. 75g of starter. The dough was wet so it would not hold its shape. I was concerned I had a dense dough, but was pleasantly surprised how soft and airy this came out.

The loaf on the left was baked in the dutch oven while the flatter loaf was on the stone. The slice was the stone baked loaf.

Right now I have a mix of all purpose flour and KA bread flour in my big container about 50/50 and used 800g of that mix with 200g of KA whole wheat.

Next, I will try his variation on his The Real Baker schedule where you prep your starter the night before, make the dough in the morning and then put it in the fridge for the bulk rise, the pick up from there (pre-shape/bench rest/shape/proof and bake) when you get home at night. I prefer this method and the long bulk rise in the fridge will develop better texture and flavor but won't leave you rushing home from work.

Pau Hana Reefer · Jun 24, 2020

NS Mike D said:
I used Michael Greenfield's Nine to Five method yesterday where you get your starter ready and autolyse (hydrate) the flour before you leave for work 8AM, leave it alone until 5pm for the stretch and fold and bulk rise. 10pm shape into the proofing baskets and into the fridge overnight to bake in the morning.

I used the baker's ratio: 100/80/20 = 1000g flour, 800g water and 20g salt, but missed where he said that is hard to work so start with 750 -770 g of water. 75g of starter. The dough was wet so it would not hold its shape. I was concerned I had a dense dough, but was pleasantly surprised how soft and airy this came out.

The loaf on the left was baked in the dutch oven while the flatter loaf was on the stone. The slice was the stone baked loaf.

Right now I have a mix of all purpose flour and KA bread flour in my big container about 50/50 and used 800g of that mix with 200g of KA whole wheat.

Next, I will try his variation on his The Real Baker schedule where you prep your starter the night before, make the dough in the morning and then put it in the fridge for the bulk rise, the pick up from there (pre-shape/bench rest/shape/proof and bake) when you get home at night. I prefer this method and the long bulk rise in the fridge will develop better texture and flavor but won't leave you rushing home from work.

This is awesome, thank you for sharing. I've been intrigued by the recipes that work with those of us who work 9-5 jobs. Is the Michael Greenfield's Nine to Five recipe the one in the link you shared in your previous post?

I attempted Perfect Loaf's Beginner Recipe again this past weekend and got better results than the previous weekend, but still not as good as my first loaf. Texture was there, but the loaf didn't rise as tall. I'm wondering if perhaps I need to adjust my shaping? This one definitely also seems a bit more wet throughout the process, despite using the same ratios. The only thing that was different was room temperature. I definitely fixed the issues from my second attempt where the bread turned out too dense and was cake-like.

Here are two side-by-sides of my first (on the left) and this past weekend: