Cooking Cheap

I’m back in the Sourdough saddle again. I saved a ‘chef’ from the last batch of dough. Time to make bread.

[Day 1]

Click on the picture for a slightly larger picture (137KB).

That’s about 14 grams of ‘chef’ (the dough ball in front), almost a half cup of flour (2 oz) and 2 oz of water. It will ferment on the counter top (cool this time of year) overnight (Saturday) and I’ll either do another refresh (2 oz of each) or I’ll mix it with the final dough. Either way it’s into the fridge tomorrow night (Sunday) for baking on Monday.

At the moment, the goal is those tough gluten strands of chewy. I know how to make holes and they need to be there too. I suspect it’s kneading vs rise times. Yes, I have made some fine bread and I could follow my own recipes. Not a bad place to start from.

[Day 2]

I decided to feed the levain with 2 oz each of flour and water and left it on the counter for 6 hours. It was probably ready sooner that. I have 8 oz of levain (starter), half flour and half water alhough it seems thicker to me. Numbers don’t lie however.

During that time I reviewed my blog entries looking for the loaf that I defrosted last night. It was a fine loaf and more tunneled that I thought when taking the picture of commenting. A recipe worth tweaking in small ways. That’s why I make these entries, it’s my lab notebook.

I mixed the starter with 5 5/8 oz of water. I added 1 1/4 oz of whole wheat bread flour and 9 1/8 oz of white bread flour (King Arthur AP). I’m looking for roughly 65% hydration. I mixed by hand for a minute or two and let it rest for 20 minutes. I’ve found this rest period to be helpful to the baker, if not the bread. The gluten starts to form and it’s easier to knead if you let it rest.

Those weights are 2 1/8 C flour (the total of the WWF and BF) and 2/3 C water, minus a smidgen on the water and I guess one (1) C of active starter (or a bit more). I’ll need to watch it closely because that’s enough starter to total weight to be faster acting than the reference recipe, That used half that amount of starter (it was also for a 1.25lb loaf). FWIW I scoop heaping soup spoons of flour into the measuring cup until I get the weight I want. The Cup measures I give was taken by dumping that flour into a a big measuring cup just so you’d know the approximate amount of flour. I did the same with the water. I weighed it and reported on the amount. It’ll get you close.

I used a small amount of bench flour and kneaded the dough for a minute or two. I added 1 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt (or 1 tsp of table salt) and kneaded for a few minutes more. It felt a bit drier than I wanted (which is probably from using that bit of whole wheat flour) so I watered my hands several times during kneading to work just a little bit more water in in. That also keeps the dough from sticking to me. The doughs at 65% and 70% hydration are quite different in stickiness.

I let the dough sit on the counter, covered for 30 minutes and then I did a stretch and fold (left and right, then top to bottom, wet hands). It was firm enough at that point it could have gone into the bowl to proof but I let it sit for another 30 minutes and was able to get another good stretch and fold. Another 30 minutes and it doesn’t want to stretch but I did it anyway (just left to right) and then I did a little gentle kneading and shaping and put it into the oiled bowl to finish the first rise. It’s been two hour (plus the 1.5 before that for the stretch and fold). The “poke” test says it’s ready for a nap but it hasn’t doubled yet. Then again, I’ve seen it double in the fridge.

This is my first challenge of this baking session. I know what an over proofed dough looks like. I don’t want to over proof and break those gluten strands down that I worked to create. Something tells me it’s time to shape the dough and put it in the fridge. It’s been four and half hours on the counter when you add up the stretch and fold times and an the bowl rising. Good call. A little shapening and I see that the gluten has formed, it resists me, yet it is a soft and tender dough. It would have turned on me in an hour.

I cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the banneton and a 1/4 inch up the sides. We’ll see if that helps the sticking problem. The dough is going to be in the banneton for an overnight retard in the fridge which is plenty of time for a wet dough to stick to the banneton. We’ll see if the parchment helps.
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I’m tweaking the base recipe in lots of little ways and as always, I’m feeling hopeful. I want gluten strands and holes and a big second rise and oven spring that would scare small critters. It’s unlikely I’ll get it all of that, but just maybe, this will the one

Pictures of the dough after the last stretch and fold and then after the first rise, shaped and into the banneton for the fridge nap.

Five and half hours out of the fridge, it doubled more or less but you can see that from the picture. Out of the oven: a good shape, decent oven spring, the surface shows that is a bubbles and gluten. It looks promising.

The “Money Shot”. It’s 288KB if you click on the little picture.

The pictures may be lousy but the bread hits the mark. Plenty of holes, tunnels, chew, a nice earthy taste. I’ve done good. Really good.