April 5, 2006
It Needed Doing
A week without baking is like, a week without the sourdough scent. That’s too long. Standard drill: 1oz flour, 1 oz water, tablespoon of cold starter. Mix them and let ferment overnight.
I’ve gone back to the generic mega mart bread flour. Mostly because I had a 5lb bag of it and I don’t see a lot difference in bread quality from using the higher protein flours. I’m a heathen, but the website is “Cooking Cheap” not “Cooking Without A Budget”. Mega-mart it is.
The starter was pretty pooped out, with a thin layer of hooch. Very thick. It’s been a few weeks since it’s last feeding so I fed it a 1/4 C flour and some water. It’ll stay on the counter overnight with the “levain”.
After 8 hours, maybe 10, I added 3oz of bread flour and 3oz of water. Standard formula. That was on the on counter for 4 hours and it was pretty “levain”. A ropey mess of goo only a baker would love.
I got busy installing the new computer so I just put the 8 oz of starter in the fridge last night and took it out this evening, let it warm for an hour or two and mixed it up wet (70%) with 10 oz of bread flour and 6 oz of water. (14 and 10 if you include the starter and you should). Let set for 20 minutes. I mixed in the salt (1 1/2 tsp+ Kosher) in a short hand kneading exercise. Use wet hands.
Four stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. I like the no knead approach. A lot less clean up and I have not found either to better than the other for texture, crumb or taste when it comes to hearth breads (AKA artisan).
I think I should let the dough build now, In an hour or two, I can shape it and put it in the fridge. That’s what I did.
The next day, I took it out of the fridge and let it set on the counter for 3 hours and 45 minutes. Slashed, backed at 450F, just my “normal” procedure. It doubled in the oven, It looks great. It’ll taste fine. It is no better (or worse) than other pictures I’ve posted so I’m not going to fool with camera.
The mega mart bread flour can make good bread. I knew that. I know it again.
[update]
I should have taken a picture. I was a lovely loaf out of the oven and the tunneling was about as perfect as you could want. Not too big, but a few big ones, evenly distributed top to bottom. Visually, it kicked butt.
It also tasted very good. I defrosted a chunk last night for dinner and it too was very tasty. The crust was fabulous. Chewy and tough but in the inner crumb had enough strength to not collapse when slicing through the tough crust.