Hello friends!
Nothing fancy happening here today. I really like white sourdough bread, but, adding a bit of whole grains makes it taste better to me. So I figured if nothing fancy is happening inside the loaf, I would challenge some of the habits I had developed when making bread. Just try something new and see what happens, right?
I reduced the levain that I would normally use in a loaf like this to 12% prefermented flour. I was trying to slow down the bulk fermentation and see what that did to the taste. I’m very happy with how this loaf tastes. Result!!
I tried a different shaping technique, from Trevor J Wilson’s how to make tartine style country bread video. I enjoyed the process. Normally, I wouldn’t dare rolling up my dough like that and would go for less a aggressive shaping technique, but I did it and the sun still rose today!! I just need to practice getting the right balance between getting enough surface tension and being gentle with the dough.
Oh and I decided to get a little creative with the scoring, see the little forest on the side?! Okay, it wasn’t really my idea. I got the idea from instagram (@brooklynsourdough).
Considering that getting the dough out of the bowl was a bit of a disaster, I’m happy with the crumb. In hindsight I think I should have let the bulk fermentation go for another hour or so or maybe left the shaped dough out at room temp for a little while longer.
Here’s the whole formula:
|
|
Weight (g) |
Final dough |
% |
|
Levain (80% hydration) |
93 |
|
|
|
Water |
278 |
320 |
76% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flour |
370 |
421 |
100% |
|
Unbleached white bread flour |
295 |
295 |
70% |
|
Whole wheat flour |
75 |
117 |
28% |
|
Rye flour |
|
9 |
2% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Salt |
9 |
9 |
2% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total dough weight |
750 |
750 |
|
The method was pretty simple:
1. 1 stage 12 hour levain build. 20 g NMNF rye starter plus 50 whole wheat flour and 40g water2.
2. “Pre mix” the dough i.e. all the flour, water and salt is mixed the night before mixing chilled in the fridge for a few hours and set out to come to room temperature overnight.
3. I spent about 30 mins mixing the dough initially and then I did 4 set of stretch and folds, not quite hourly but they were done within the first 5 hours of the bulk fermentation. Then another 2.75 hours bulk fermentation (yes, things were slow because its cold here!)
4. Pre shape and let the dough rest for 30mins.
5. Shape and let the dough sit in the basket for about an hour before refrigerating overnight.
6. Baked at 250 dC for 20mins with steam and then at 230 dC for another 25mins.
Happy baking everyone!
