Dough:
70% AP Flour;
30% Weak whole-wheat pastry flour;
30% Levain (100% hyd);
70% Water (27c);
2.2% Salt.
1 hour autolyse / 4 hour bulk (room temp - 21c)
Overnight proof (2-3c, 12 hours)
Baked in dutch oven 475F - 30mins with lid on, 20min lid off.
Crumb on the denser side from the relatively low hydration, yet soft and tender from the long fermentation and weak pastry flour. Almost a meal in and on itself!
500 g water
Autolyse 1 hour minimum
120 g starter
12 g salt
Mix well
Stretch and fold every 1/2 hr till good gluten forms …4 or 5 times… window pane test
Bulk rise 4 hours or so about 85 + degrees (in oven with light on)
Form and then fermented in fridge 20 hours
Pre heat oven and cast iron 1 hour
Baked at 500 def 20 min in Dutch oven
400 deg lid off to brown 10 - 15 min
The first lockdown meant I started making my own pizza bases, moved to naan breads to accompany my Tarka Dahl but looking at some of these beauties I’ll be raising my game,
If you want to get started, I really enjoyed Vanessa Kimbell’s Sourdough School (the book). Her website seems also filled with good advice.
Otherwise, I enjoy Maurizio’s website over at the https://www.theperfectloaf.com/. Beside the usually beautiful pictures and well written posts, he puts a fair bit of work into developing his formulas. He also has a section on how to start your starter (!) and how to maintain it.
I can’t make these too often because I just eat them all, usually with lots of butter and/or make grilled cheese. My hips got too big so I’m on a hiatus, but looking back on these memories fondly…
OK ok, I’ll probably do some more this winter yum yum.
Interesting. I’m going to have a go at this and report back. (I’ve been making bread for years without the sourdough starter).
Is there a reason why the starters all seem to be quite thick? Would it matter if they were less viscous?
I’m quite familiar with yeast from my brewing days and was wondering if I could use my lab glass with a stir plate.
Experimented with adding Everything Bagel seasoning before the cold fermentation and found that the garlic did not have a big effect on the yeast. This could be due the garlic being granulated. Quite the tasty loaf, i’ll definitely be trying this one again.
The yeast (and a lacto- bacteria) live off the flour in the starter. You can water it down, but then the innoculation strength is low so you have to add more (or very slow rise). And then you throw off the hydration balance of your dough.
Sour dough starters are usually very robust, and once going, tend to outcompete undesirable/invasive yeast/bacteria. Beer cultures, to my knowledge, are very sensitive to contamination and require more sterile handling, etc
